The Kolkata Municipal Corporation got its first woman commissioner on Wednesday after the Election Commission appointed Smita Pandey as the civic body’s executive head.

The move came as part of an EC order removing 13 district election officers (DEOs). The KMC commissioner serves as the DEO for north Calcutta.

A 2005-batch IAS officer, Pandey became the second KMC commissioner in 12 days. She replaced Anshul Gupta, a 2013-batch IAS officer, who had been appointed by the state government on March 6.

“Smita Pandey will be the first woman to become the KMC commissioner,” a senior civic official said.

Almost all departments of the civic body are headed by male officers, with the exception of the health department, which is led by a woman.

Pandey is not new to the KMC. She served as project director — of joint municipal commissioner rank — of the Kolkata Environment Improvement Investment Programme (KEIIP), an Asian Development Bank-funded initiative to upgrade the city’s drainage and water supply infrastructure, between January 2013 and February 2014.

In November 2025, she was appointed special roll observer for Birbhum, Purba Bardhaman and Paschim Bardhaman by the EC during the SIR.

She has also served as district magistrate of East Midnapore and North Dinajpur, and earlier as special secretary of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority.

Born and raised in Lucknow, Pandey holds a master’s degree in plant science and an MBA from Lucknow University. She later earned an LLM degree from Calcutta University.

Pandey will have much to do in the coming weeks in her dual roles as KMC commissioner and DEO, north Calcutta. As DEO, she will oversee polling in seven Assembly constituencies: Chowringhee, Entally, Beleghata, Jorasanko, Shyampukur, Maniktala and Cossipore-Belgachia.

Election duty is not new to her. She had served as DEO, south Calcutta, during the 2016 Assembly elections.

She also takes charge as commissioner as the financial year draws to a close, when the civic body’s assessment department faces pressure to recover pending property tax from defaulters and large taxpayers. Property tax is the KMC’s largest source of revenue.

Commissioners have headed KMC’s executive branch since 1951. Before that, the executive head was designated as chief executive officer. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was the first CEO of the then Corporation of Calcutta.