The West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) refuses to lie low before the Election Commission (EC)’s decision to transfer several IAS and IPS officers after announcing the assembly polls in the state and approached the Calcutta High Court on Friday challenging its transfer orders.
The EC had ordered the transfer of a large number of senior bureaucrats, including the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, and DGP, within hours of announcing the assembly elections on March 15.
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee denounced the EC’s move on Thursday, calling it “an undeclared emergency” and a “deliberate design to seize control of Bengal through coercion and institutional manipulation.”
The petition moved in the High Court by TMC leader and lawyer Kalyan Banerjee questions the EC’s decision to transfer officers occupying crucial positions without consulting the state government. The petition names Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar as a respondent.
CM Mamata went on to allege that the EC’s action was driven by political vendetta and shot off a letter to the CEC, urging him to refrain from such “arbitrary, unilateral, and biased” action.
The CM also accused the EC of showing little regard for ground realities or the well-being of the people since the commencement of the so-called Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
The matter is likely to be heard early next week.
However, in the meantime, the EC on Thursday put on hold some of its inter-state transfer orders for senior IPS officers. Bidhannagar Commissioner of Police (CP) P Murlidhar Sharma (IPS:2005:WB) and Siliguri CP Syed Waquar Raza (IPS:2007:WB), who were earlier asked to move to Tamil Nadu, have been asked to wait.
Similarly, transfer orders for Barrackpore Police Commissioner Praveen Tripathi (IPS:2004:WB) and Howrah Police Commissioner Akash Magharia (IPS:2009:WB) to Tamil Nadu and that of Birbhum SP Amandeep (IPS:2014:WB) to Karnataka have also been put on hold.
The EC has announced elections for the 294-member Bengal Assembly to be held in two phases on April 23 and 29, with counting scheduled for May 4.
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