‘Unpromulgated President’s Rule’: CM Mamata on transfers | India News
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
KOLKATA: The Election Commission’s massive transfer of senior IAS and IPS officers within Bengal was a form of “unpopular President’s rule”, CM Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday.The EC’s move was “a deliberate design to seize control of Bengal through coercion and institutional manipulation”, Banerjee posted in X.
“What we are witnessing is nothing short of an undeclared emergency… driven by political vendetta, not democratic principles,” he added before writing to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar urging the EC to refrain from such “arbitrary, unilateral and biased” action.As of Wednesday, the election body had transferred more than 60 Bengal officials.“The state, deprived of its chief administrative and police leadership, may not be able to respond effectively,” Banerjee said, adding that the EC should be blamed for any failure to maintain law and order.Banerjee’s protest coincided with the EC on Thursday suspending some of the inter-state transfers of its senior police officers. Bidhannagar CP Muralidhar Sharma and Siliguri CP Syed Wakar Raja, who were asked to leave for Tamil Nadu, were asked to wait. Later, Barrackpore CP Praveen Tripathi and Howrah CP Akash Maghria’s transfer order to Tamil Nadu and outgoing Birbhum Amandeep’s transfer order to Karnataka were also stayed.
