Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the Election Commission in a formal letter of crossing “all boundaries of decency and constitutional propriety” with its whiplash transfers of Bengal officials, suggesting a “deliberate attempt” to push the state into “administrative instability and disorder”.
The situation resembled “an Emergency or indirect central rule” and the poll panel’s actions showed “a clear bias and an uncomfortable submission to political interests”, her latest letter to chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said.
Hours earlier, the chief minister had posted a bellicose statement on X, alleging “a targeting of Bengal and its people” and promising that “Bengal would fight”.
By evening, the rhetoric of identity politics had made way for complaints of constitutional overreach and undemocratic impositions on an elected government.
“I am deeply shocked by the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI), which, in my view, has crossed all boundaries of decency and constitutional propriety,” Mamata wrote.
She said the “unilateral” replacement of the chief secretary, home secretary and police chiefs alongside dozens of others in the police and civil administrations, including district magistrates, amounted to “direct interference” in the state’s affairs.
Mamata underlined that 15 senior police officers had been deemed ineligible for election duty in Bengal, only to be posted as observers to other states within 24 hours, and without any consultations with the state government or prior training.
“This hastiness and unilateral allocation of duties is arbitrary, amounts to a misuse of authority and reflects a serious overreach by the ECI,” she wrote.
Mamata lambasted the relentless pace of the transfers, which include those of more than 50 senior officials in less than 100 hours.
She hit out in particular against the removal of nearly a dozen district magistrates —who also serve as district election officers — at a time when the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls was still incomplete.
The chief minister asked: “(The) transfer of numerous DEOs at this juncture appears to be driven by a clear mala fide intent.… (Is) this not tantamount to a mockery of democracy?”
Standing in solidarity with the transferred officers, Mamata said that no authority could undermine an elected government.
Going beyond the domain of political and constitutional issues, the chief minister also flagged some of the possible governance hurdles arising out of the mass transfers and argued they could have a human cost.
“The months of March and April are particularly prone to severe storms, which often cause significant damage to life and property,”she wrote.
She argued that officials brought in from outside might be hobbled, while leading rescue operations, by their lack of familiarity with the local terrain, language and socio-cultural sensitivities.
“Therefore, any failure in maintaining law and order or in administrative management arising from these decisions would rest solely with the ECI,” Mamata wrote.
“At a time when a deeply flawed SIR process is under way and over 200 lives have already been lost, the conduct of the commission reflects a clear bias and an uncomfortable submission to political interests.”
Mamata asked the commission to “refrain from such arbitrary, unilateral and biased actions” that she said ran counter to public interest and democratic traditions.
In her post on X, she had earlier said: “Why is the BJP so desperate? Why this relentless targeting of Bengal and its people? What satisfaction do they derive from forcing citizens, even after 78 years of Independence, to stand in queues and prove their own citizenship?”
She had warned: “Bengal will fight, Bengal will resist and Bengal will decisively defeat every attempt to impose a divisive and destructive agenda on its soil.”