EC now transfers 13 IAS and 20 IPS officers in Bengal | India News
KOLKATA: Within three days of announcing the March 15 polling date, the Election Commission (EC) has transferred 60 senior IAS and IPS officers in Bengal. 17 of them have been named as election observers in other states.In the latest order since the Model Code of Conduct came into effect, the EC on Wednesday transferred 13 IAS officers, who were working as District Election Officers (DEOs), and 20 IPS officers. Among the 13 were the DEOs of Kolkata North and Kolkata South constituencies.Two IPS officers – Muralidhar Sharma and Walker Raja – were named as election observers for Tamil Nadu. Sharma is the commissioner of Bidhannagar city police, while Raja took over as the chief of the Siliguri commissionerate a few days ago. The five IAS officers sent to other states as election observers are JP Meena (removed as home secretary on Sunday), Antara Acharya, Parvez Ahmed Siddiqui, P Mohan Gandhi and Priyanka Singla.While government officials were routinely transferred in the run-up to elections, the sheer number of transfers ahead of the 2026 elections made the current practice unprecedented, officials said. Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to CEC Gyanesh Kumar, asking why the EC bypassed the convention of seeking a panel of three names from the state government to fill each post affected by the transfer.
