Bengal top poll officer named as chief secretary, TMC calls appointment ‘outrageous and brazen’

The Bharatiya Janata Party government in West Bengal on Monday appointed Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal, who oversaw the special intensive revision of electoral rolls and the Assembly elections in the state, as the new chief secretary.

The chief secretary is the highest-ranking civil servant in a state and acts as the principal advisor to the chief minister and chief coordinator of inter-departmental affairs.

West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal has been appointed as the Chief Secretary to the Government of West Bengal. pic.twitter.com/xkuN3ExnD4— ANI (@ANI) May 11, 2026

This came two days after Subrata Gupta, who was the special rolls observer for the special intensive revision exercise, was appointed as the advisor to West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.

On Monday, the Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose described Agarwal’s appointment as “outrageous and brazen”.

“The so called ‘neutral umpire’ is rewarded with the post of top bureaucrat of the BJP dispensation in Bengal,” Ghose said on social media. “Does anyone still seriously believe the [West Bengal Assembly elections] were free and fair?”

Trinamool Congress spokesperson Saket Gokhale claimed that the BJP and the Election Commission were now being “open about stealing the election”.

“Are the courts blind or complicit?” Gokhale asked. “This is beyond shameless.”

TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien remarked in a sarcastic vein that...

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