Bengal's Top Poll Official Now Chief Secretary, Trinamool Says "Shameless"

Bengal's Chief Election Officer Manoj Agarwal has been appointed the state's Chief Secretary in the new BJP government led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. The government has also inducted retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta as Advisor to the Chief Minister, raising questions from the opposition Trinamool Congress about the fairness of the recently concluded election. The BJP has defended both appointments, saying they were "merit-based" and in line with its "promise to restore the dignity of the laws of the land". 

The government issued a public notice on the matter the day Adhikari distributed portfolios among his ministers. The backlash was sharp and immediate. 

Trinamool leader Saket Gokhale dubbed the move "beyond shameless" and party MP Derek O'Brien, in a sarcastic vein, called it a "coincidence".

In his post on X, Gokhale added that the move showed BJP and the ECI were "being open about stealing the election" and questioned whether the courts were "blind or complicit".

Sagarika Ghose, Trinamool's Rajya Sabha MP, posted on X: "The so-called 'neutral umpire' is rewarded with the post of top bureaucrat of the BJP dispensation in Bengal. Does anyone still seriously believe #BengalElections2026 were free and fair? Outrageous and brazen."

In a statement, the West Bengal BJP unit said: "Unlike Mamata Banerjee, who had subverted the bureaucracy by blatantly flouting the rules governing the IAS by superseding dozens of officers, the BJP Government of West Bengal has appointed the senior most IAS officer working in the state, Shri Manoj Agarwal, as the Chief Secretary of West Bengal in keeping with its promise to restore the dignity of the laws of the land."

Who Are The Officials

Agarwal, a 1990-batch IAS officer of the West Bengal cadre and IIT Kanpur alumnus, was responsible for conducting the recently concluded assembly elections in the state and overseeing aspects of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. 

He is set to succeed outgoing Chief Secretary Dushyant Nariala. Agarwal is expected to serve a short initial tenure. The senior-most official in service, he is due to retire in June.

Retired 1990-batch IAS officer Subrata Gupta served as the Election Commission of India's Special Roll Observer for the SIR exercise ahead of the polls. He was appointed as Advisor to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on May 9.

The Trinamool had raised complaints against both officials during the election period regarding the SIR process and poll conduct.