‘Brazen collusion’ barb at BJP after two election officials get high posts in new Bengal govt
Telegraph | 13 May 2026
National opposition leaders on Tuesday took potshots at what they called “brazen collusion” between the BJP and the Election Commission over two bureaucrats who had overseen the Assembly elections in Bengal being appointed in the new BJP state government of chief minister Suvendu Adhikari.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi reposted a headline on the appointments of erstwhile Bengal chief election officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal as the new state chief secretary and special observer Subrata Gupta as adviser to the chief minister.
“In BJP-EC's ‘thieves' market’, the bigger the theft, the bigger the reward,” Rahul wrote in Hindi as his caption.
Agarwal was responsible for overseeing the Assembly elections. Gupta, a retired IAS officer, was special observer in the CEO’s office.
"These appointments reflect the brazen collusion and connivance between the ECI and the BJP. There is no longer even an attempt to keep the collusion discrete or concealed," Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary in charge of communications, had said on Monday.
The appointments, Ramesh had claimed, were a testimony that the ECI was not impartial and acted exclusively to benefit the BJP.
“An entire state went to the election with 27 lakh people being debarred from voting. This was tactfully executed by the ECI to create an electoral advantage for the BJP,” Ramesh said.
The Bengal government on Sunday carried out a bureaucratic shuffle, appointing two IAS officers and seven WBCS (executive) officers in the chief minister's office (CMO), according to official notifications.
Gupta was appointed adviser to the chief minister hours after Adhikari was sworn in; Shantanu Bala was named his private secretary.
"It is quite evident that Kalyugi Ram Rajya is on in Bengal,” TMC MP Kirti Azad declared to PTI Videos on Tuesday. ”A person like Manoj Agarwal, who was made the CEO of Election Commission in Bengal, who was to be the third, neutral umpire, has been given the top post in the state. Subrat Gupta, who was to look into the issue of those 30 lakh voters, is now the adviser to the CM of West Bengal. We know this from the very beginning, BJP along with the Election Commission played dirty tricks... We know this was all planned and they did not win by majority votes but by the tricks that they did."
Another TMC MP, Sagorika Ghose, also drew up the neutrality debate.
“Officers working with the Election Commission in Bengal, as so called “neutral umpires” in the Bengal Assembly polls, overseeing deletions of lakhs of voters are appointed as top bureaucrats in the BJP government in Bengal. Is this a quid pro quo? Does anyone now seriously believe that #bengalassemblypolls 2026 were free and fair? The country is entitled to ask,” Ghose wrote on X (formerly Twitter)..
The BJP bristled at the Opposition’s allegations.
"He [Agarwal] is not just former CEO, he is also the senior-most civil servant of the state. If there is anything, talk to others. We, the government of BJP are performing as per the law," Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Tuesday.
“Should we consult TMC before appointing him?” BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain told PTI Videos.
“The government has the right to decide who should serve as the Bengal chief secretary. Manoj Agarwal is a competent and experienced officer. Should the post be handed over to a Trinamool Congress worker instead?”
UP Minister Narendra Kashyap said: “West Bengal has been under the rule of corrupt leaders so it is a challenge for the CM to bring the state on the track and for that he will appoint good officials.”
A retired IAS officer told The Telegraph Online that they could not recall a state chief electoral officer being made chief secretary of a new state government before but in recent years there has been a trend of election officials being given posts in the bureaucracy of other states.
Election officials have taken political plunges before. For example, Manohar Singh Gill, who was as the 11th chief election commissioner from 1996 to 2001, had joined the Congress, became a Rajya Sabha member and also a Union minister of sports.
Even T.N. Seshan, widely seen as the man who gave the Election Commission its teeth, ran for President.