NEW DELHI, May 12: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday intensified his attack on the BJP and the Election Commission, alleging a close nexus between the two over recent bureaucratic appointments made by the West Bengal government following the Assembly elections.
Taking to social media platform X, Gandhi criticised the appointment of former West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal as the state’s new chief secretary and former special electoral roll observer Subrata Gupta as chief advisor to the chief minister. In a sharp remark posted in Hindi, Gandhi alleged that the “BJP-EC system rewards those involved in electoral manipulation.”
The Congress party claimed that the appointments have raised serious questions over the impartiality of the Election Commission during the recently concluded Assembly elections in West Bengal.
Congress general secretary for communications Jairam Ramesh said the appointments exposed what he described as an “open and visible partnership” between the ruling BJP and the Election Commission of India. According to him, both officials had played significant roles during the election process and were now being rewarded with influential positions in the state administration.
Ramesh alleged that Manoj Agarwal, a 1990-batch IAS officer from the West Bengal cadre, supervised the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls ahead of the Assembly elections. He further claimed that lakhs of names were removed from voter lists during the revision exercise, affecting the democratic rights of many citizens.
The Congress leader also referred to the appointment of Subrata Gupta, another senior IAS officer, who had reportedly overseen electoral roll scrutiny operations in the state before being named advisor to the chief minister shortly after the new government assumed office.
Questioning the credibility of the electoral process, Ramesh alleged that the Election Commission failed to maintain neutrality and acted in a manner that benefited the BJP politically during the state polls. He further claimed that the removal of voters from electoral rolls had tilted the political balance in favour of the ruling party.
The West Bengal government on Sunday announced a major bureaucratic reshuffle within the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). Along with the appointments of Agarwal and Gupta, several IAS and West Bengal Civil Service officers were assigned new administrative responsibilities, according to official notifications.
The developments have triggered a fresh political confrontation between the Congress and the BJP, with the opposition party accusing constitutional institutions of losing their independence under the present political climate.