West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Election Commission of India (ECI) after the poll watchdog replaced state chief secretary Nandini Chakraborty and home secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena through an order issued late on Sunday night.
“Last night I received a message at 1am that our CS had been removed, almost stealthily. Previously, they requested a list of officers from us and we provided three names as options. Now we only have autocracy. Nandini Chakraborty is a Bengali woman. You removed her at midnight. You are anti-Bengali, anti-women. Shame on you. The home secretary is a non-Bengali. You are anti-non-Bengali as well,” Banerjee said after leading a rally in Kolkata protesting the LPG crisis.
The EC appointed Bengal cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers Dushyant Nariala and Sanghamitra Ghosh as CS and principal secretary of the home department respectively.
The order signed by EC secretary Sujeet Kumar Mishra said “the officers transferred out shall not be posted in any election-related posts till the completion of elections.”
Banerjee alleged that the officers posted by the EC were “BJP people”.
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“Are all these things being done so that BJP people can be made chief secretary and home secretary? You are here today. But you won’t be there tomorrow. Where will you run?”she said.
Banerjee targeted the BJP and EC for transferring director general of police Peeyush Pandey, Kolkata Police commissioner Supratim Sarkar and replacing them with West Bengal cadre Indian Police Service (IPS) officers Siddh Nath Gupta and Ajay Kumar Nand respectively.
“The DGP is a non-Bengali. You are removing non-Bengali efficient officers as well. You are picking people who will listen to BJP. No matter who you send, they will work for us and the people of Bengal. You can transfer someone for three months but you cannot change the people,” Benaerjee said.
“Did you transfer Supratim so that you can ship cash into Kolkata? We will be on the alert. You should save yourself first. Your government will collapse in 2026. You will be left nowhere,” Banerjee said.
Banerjee accused the Centre of creating an artificial LPG crisis.
“The BJP government has shut down the LPG booking servers with an eye on the elections. BJP brought a lot of LPG cylinders to cook food for people at the Brigade rally,” Banerjee said referring to the rally Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed in Kolkata on Saturday.
“This is an artificial crisis. I held meetings with the companies. There is no shortage. I told them to normalise the supply chain. Where will small eatery owners, homemakers and village people go to get LPG?
“We don’t want this BJP. Let the polls be praceful. Nobody should fall for provocations. Once the polls are over we will tackle Delhi. Today’s rally has proved that Bengal will win,” Banerjee told the crowd.
BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, who was named as the candidate against the chief minister at her Bhawanipore constituency, told the media that officer “shunted out” by her were being posted by the EC.
“A lot of good officers were shunted out by Mamata Banerjee. It is EC’s job to put them to use,” he said.
