The opposition also stated there is no effort to keep this collusion hidden or discreet.
Congress general secretary for communications, Jairam Ramesh, remarked that the BJP-led West Bengal government has selected former chief election officer Manoj Agarwal, a 1990-batch IAS officer who oversaw the recent Assembly elections in the state, as the new chief secretary.
In a similar vein, Subrata Gupta, another 1990-batch IAS officer who supervised the SIR deletions in Bengal as the special roll observer, has been appointed the chief advisor to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, Ramesh emphasized.
“These appointments reflect the blatant collusion and connivance between the ECI and the BJP. There is no longer any attempt to keep this collusion hidden or discreet,” Ramesh stated.
He alleged that the appointments demonstrate that the ECI was not impartial and acted solely to benefit the BJP.
“An entire state went to the elections with 27 lakh individuals being barred from voting. This was strategically orchestrated by the ECI to create an electoral advantage for the BJP,” Ramesh added.
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Agarwal, a West Bengal cadre officer, led the EC-mandated Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal prior to the Assembly polls, during which approximately 91 lakh voters were removed from the voter list.
The West Bengal government made a bureaucratic reshuffle on Sunday, appointing two IAS officers and seven WBCS (executive) officers in the chief minister’s office (CMO), as per official notifications.
Retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta was appointed advisor to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari just hours after his swearing-in, while Shantanu Bala was designated as his private secretary.
