Major reshuffle in West Bengal: After chief secretary, EC removes DGP and Kolkata CP

The Election Commission (EC) on Monday removed West Bengal’s Director General of Police Peeyush Pandey and Kolkata Police Commissioner Supratim Sarkar, a day after it reshuffled the state's top administrative leadership following the announcement of the assembly poll schedule.

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Senior IPS officer Siddh Nath Gupta has been appointed Director General and Inspector General of Police (in-charge), replacing Pandey, while Ajay Kumar Nand has been named the new Commissioner of Kolkata Police in place of Sarkar.

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According to an official communication, the poll panel directed the West Bengal government to implement the changes immediately and submit a compliance report by 3 pm on Monday.

The commission also ordered the appointment of Natarajan Ramesh Babu as Director General of Correctional Services and Ajay Mukund Ranade as Additional Director General and Inspector General of Police (Law and Order).

The officials removed from their posts, the commission said, "should not be posted in any election-related assignment till the completion of the polls."

The latest changes come a day after the commission removed two senior bureaucrats of the Mamata Banerjee government shortly after announcing the West Bengal assembly election schedule.

The poll panel replaced Chief Secretary Nandini Chakravorty with Dushyant Nariala, a 1993-batch IAS officer, and directed that Chakravorty be kept out of poll-related assignments. West Bengal's Home Secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena was also removed from his post.

The commission asked the state government to appoint Sanghamitra Ghosh, a 1997-batch IAS officer, as Principal Secretary, Home and Hill Affairs.

The reshuffle triggered protests in Parliament from the ruling Trinamool Congress. TMC members staged a day-long walkout from the Rajya Sabha on Monday, condemning the EC's decision to remove the state's top bureaucrats.

Party leader Derek O'Brien criticised the poll panel's midnight move to restructure the administrative hierarchy in the state. Responding to the protests, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the Election Commission was a constitutional authority and cautioned against questioning its decisions in Parliament.

West Bengal Elections in two phases

West Bengal will vote in two phases on April 23 and April 29, with counting scheduled for May 4.