On Thursday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) overturned the transfer of two senior police officers in West Bengal and paused the transfer of three others, partially retracting its contentious directive to reassign 15 IPS officers from the election-bound state. West Bengal: ECI overturns transfer of two IPS officers, three on hold. The decision was announced on the same day that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sent a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, accusing the ECI of having “crossed all boundaries of decency and constitutional propriety.” On Wednesday night, the ECI nullified the alternative assignments arranged by the state government for 15 IPS officers. The Mamata Banerjee government reassigned these officers even after the ECI had already removed them from their original positions and prohibited them from performing any election duties prior to the assembly elections. “Murali Dhar, Police Commissioner of Bidhannagar, and Syed Waquar Raza, Police Commissioner of Siliguri, will remain in their current roles.” Three officers—Akash Magharia, Amandeep, and Praveen Kumar Tripathi—have been placed on hold, with a deployment decision anticipated by Monday, while the other officers will be assigned to Tamil Nadu and Kerala as poll observers,” stated a senior ECI official. Bengal will hold elections in two phases—152 seats on April 23 and 142 seats on April 29. Banerjee, in an X post, highlighted what she described as a blatant inconsistency in the ECI’s management of the officers. She wrote that while it claims removed officers should not be assigned election duties, the same officers were deployed as election observers within hours. She noted that appointing the Commissioners of Police of Siliguri and Bidhannagar as observers—without installing replacements—left two key urban centers effectively leaderless, and hasty fixes were made only after the oversight was exposed. Echoing the criticism, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien took to X to slam the Commission, labeling the incident as proof of “complete mismanagement” and questioning the Election Commission’s inconsistent rulings on officer transfers and election duties. The transfer dispute marks the latest escalation in the growing clash between the state government and the poll body. Following the announcement of the election schedule on March 15, the ECI has replaced the chief secretary, director general of police, home secretary, and Kolkata police commissioner, while reshuffling over 18 IPS officers throughout the state. The Bharatiya Janata Party, the primary opposition, has demanded the complete removal of all barred officers from Bengal, claiming their ongoing presence might sway the elections. In a separate development, the ECI has officially included five departments—Government Road Transport Corporations, Electricity Boards, Traffic Police, Fire and Rescue Services, and the Prison Department—on the postal ballot list for essential serv
