Chief minister Mamata Banerjee described the transfer of officials in the state administration by the Election Commission as a “deliberate design to seize control of West Bengal” through “coercion and institutional manipulation.”

“What we are witnessing is nothing short of an undeclared emergency and an unpromulgated form of President’s rule driven by political vendetta, not democratic principles,” Mamata wrote on her official X (formerly known as Twitter) handle on Thursday afternoon.

The CM also accused the BJP of attempting to capture Bengal via “coercion, intimidation, manipulation and the misuse of institutions.”

Mamata’s post on Thursday is the latest in a long series of accusations levelled at the commission which started over a year before the Bengal elections were due.

The list of complaints started with the alleged duplication of voters from other states in Bengal electoral rolls and intensified during the special intensive revision of rolls.

The chief minister has upped the ante since the election dates were announced this past Sunday and the series of re-appointments with the top two officials in the administration began and has continued, with the numbers increasing every day.

“The manner in which the Election Commission has singled out and targeted Bengal is not just unprecedented – It is deeply alarming,” the chief minister wrote.

“Supplementary electoral rolls are still not published, in clear disregard of the Supreme Court’s directions, leaving citizens anxious and uncertain. Meanwhile, senior officers from critical agencies like IB, STF and CID are being selectively removed and dispatched out of the state, pointing to a calculated attempt to cripple Bengal’s administrative machinery,” the chief minister wrote.

Claiming that over 50 officials including the chief secretary, home secretary, DGP, ADGs, IGs, DIGs, district magistrates and superintendents of police have been removed even before the formal notification for the elections were issued, Mamata said: “This is not administrative action rather than this is political interference of the highest order.”

While announcing the list of candidates on Tuesday at her 30B Harish Chatterjee street residence Mamata had alleged an official from Haryana, nicknamed Tonsil had decided on the chief secretary.

“The systematic politicisation of institutions meant to remain impartial is a direct assault on the Constitution. At a time when a deeply flawed SIR process is underway and over 200 lives have already been lost, the conduct of the Commission reflects a clear bias and an uncomfortable submission to political interests, continuing to put the people of Bengal at risk,” Mamata wrote.

In its orders the commission had made it clear that the officials removed from their positions will not be appointed to any poll-related duty.

“It claims that removed officers should not be assigned election duties, yet within hours, the same officers are sent out as election observers,” Mamata wrote claiming contradictions in the commission’s orders.

Sources in the EC clarified that order mentioning poll-related duties referred to the home state and did not come in the way of the officials being sent to other states.

Mamata accused the commission of leaving the two important commissionerates of Siliguri and Bidhannagar being left “headless” without replacements.

“It was only after this glaring lapse came to light that rushed corrections followed. This is not governance. It reflects chaos, confusion and sheer incompetence being passed off as authority,” she wrote.