The Mamata Banerjee government on Tuesday transferred 43 IPS officers amid murmurs that the reshuffle — one of the biggest in recent times in Bengal — was aimed at streamlining police administration after the poor show of the Trinamul Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.

Nishat Pervez, who had been made Bidhananagar police commissioner on Monday, was sent back to his earlier post of deputy inspector general of police (CID-operations) on Tuesday.

B.L. Meena is the new Bidhananagar commissioner. He was posted as the Siliguri police commissioner.

“This change within a day of the earlier order is unprecedented and surprising,” said an officer.

The transfer orders were issued from Nabanna late on Tuesday evening. The changes will take effect over the next few days.

A senior state government official: “It was a routine transfer order as promotion was due for the 2005-batch.”

But sources said a closer look at the list of the transferred officers would reveal something more.

“There has been some change or the other in almost all districts. It is apparent that most of the changes have been made keeping in mind how the ruling party performed in each of the districts and where it needs to do maximum damage control,” said a senior bureaucrat.

The police chiefs of West Midnapore, Nadia, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Malda, South Dinajpur and Alipurduar districts were changed. Trinamul performed poorly in these districts.

Superintendent of police (Howrah Rural) Gaurav Sharma has been appointed the Siliguri commissioner with a promotion to the rank of deputy inspector general.

Tanmoy Ray Chaudhuri has been posted as the new Howrah police commissioner, replacing Vishal Garg who has become inspector general of police (presidency range).

The government also created three new police districts — Bongaon, Ranaghat and Krishnanagar. The sources said the new police districts were part of an earlier plan as the chief minister has always laid stress on smaller administrative units.

“This is a significant move. Bongaon police district has been carved out of Bashirhat police district. Nadia has been divided into Ranaghat and Krishnanagar police districts. Madam feels dividing the districts into smaller units would help in effective policing,” said a senior IPS officer.

There were several changes in the CID also.