The late Sunday night removal of Nandini Chakravorty as chief secretary by the Election Commission, hours after it declared the Assembly poll dates, has stunned the Bengal bureaucracy.
A section of officials alleged that the EC transferred the chief secretary after it found that she did not cooperate with the poll panel during the SIR. “The EC felt that it would not be possible to hold polls properly in Bengal by keeping Chakravorty at the helm of the administration,” said an official.
Many believed that the poll panel sent a clear message that it would initiate stringent actions to make “errant” officers fall in line, particularly after it felt that some bureaucrats did not cooperate during the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
“In the recent past, the home secretary, DGP, several DMs and SPs had been transferred by the EC. But this is the first time the chief secretary was removed. This gives a clear message that the poll panel will not spare any official if they don’t work properly to hold free and fair elections,” said a senior bureaucrat.
Apart from replacing Chakravorty with Dushyant Nariala, the EC removed home secretary J.P. Meena and replaced him with Sanghamitra Ghosh. Both Nariala and Ghosh took charge on Monday.
Sources claimed that the EC was annoyed with the chief secretary after the state government did not comply with the EC’s directives during the SIR.
The state did not comply with the order to lodge FIRs against four state government officials — the then AEROs and EROs of Baruipur East and Moina — for their alleged roles in enrolling fictitious voters in the electoral rolls.
“The EC was angry after Chakravorty wrote a letter urging it to reconsider the order to lodge FIRs against these four officers. She also wrote that departmental proceedings did not find them guilty,” said a source.
The EC was also unhappy with Chakravorty after the state government did not suspend and lodge an FIR against the BDO of Basirhat-II. The poll panel had found that the BDO had appointed 11 AEROs without consulting it.
Also, the state government did not implement an EC directive in which Nabanna was asked to revoke transfer orders of three IAS officers — Smita Pandey, Randhir Kumar and Ashwini Kumar Yadav — who were appointed as EC’s district roll observers.
“None of the EC’s directives was initially complied by the state. The EC had summoned then chief secretary, Nandini Chakravorty, to Delhi on February 13 and asked her to implement the directives immediately. Though FIRs were lodged against the four government officials, no other directive was implemented,” said an official.
He added that the EC was so “frustrated” with Chakravorty’s “approach” that it had suspended seven AEROs directly on charges of dereliction of duty.
The decision to remove Chakravorty was most likely taken on March 10 when the EC full bench held a meeting with Chakravorty and Meena at a hotel in New Town.
“The chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kunar, had warned the top state government officials during the meeting, saying they should not interfere and prevent district officials from implementing the EC directives. The CEC was not happy with the way the DMs were summoned to Nabanna the same day after they met with the EC full bench,” said a bureaucrat.
The EC, sources said, felt that it would be impossible to hold polls properly if a stern message was not sent to the administration, particularly after it was felt that the top brass of the government had repeatedly intervened during the SIR process.
“A section of the top brass of the administration repeatedly intervened during the SIR and prevented the officials from uploading documents on time. Also, it believes that several fictitious documents were uploaded after hearings at the behest of the top officials,” said a poll panel official.
Within less than 24 hours of the model code of conduct being imposed, the EC has removed five of the state’s top faces in the civil and police administration — Chakravorty and Meena, as well as DGP Peeyush Pandey, Kolkata police commissioner Supratim Sarkar and ADG (law and order) Vineet Goyal.
The EC has replaced them with “efficient” but “sidelined” officials — Nariala and Ghosh as chief secretary and home secretary, as well as Siddh Nath Gupta Ajay Kumar Nand and Ajey Mukund Ranade as DGP, Kolkata police commissioner and ADG (law and order), respectively.
BJP hails overhaul
The BJP claimed the move was a masterstroke to break the Trinamool Congress’s hegemony over controlling the state machinery.
A BJP leader said that the first strike on the system of Mamata Banerjee came on Sunday midnight when the state’s chief secretary and home secretary were removed.
The “surgical attack”, he said, followed on Monday morning when the EC reshuffled three of the state’s most important police posts — the DGP, ADG (law and order) and the Kolkata police commissioner.
“The most important part this time is that the poll panel replaced the entire system of the state machinery close to the ruling Trinamool in a single stroke. Within 24 hours, the EC has asserted its control, which will have an impact on the ground and compel police and civil officials to conduct the Assembly elections without any bias towards the ruling party,” said a senior BJP leader in Calcutta.
Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition, welcomed the move and claimed that many more officers on the ground, including police officers such as officers-in-charge and inspectors-in-charge, would be changed in the coming days.
“Elections cannot be conducted with officers who are completely panegyrists of Mamata Banerjee. The way the Election Commission has changed the chief secretary and home secretary with unbiased officers, lower-level officers will also be changed on that model,” said Adhikari.