EC’s ‘arbitrary’ transfer of officials is political interference of highest order: Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stepped up her attack on the Election Commission saying on Thursday (March 19, 2026) that the poll body’s “arbitrary removal of more than 50 senior officials” in the State is “political interference of the highest order”.

She said such action was a “systematic politicisation of institutions” and a “direct assault on the Constitution”.

Hours after announcing the Assembly polls in West Bengal on March 15, the Election Commission ordered the transfers of Chief Secretary Nandini Chakravorty, Home Secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena, and removed DGP Peeyush Pandey and Kolkata Police Commissioner Supratim Sarkar. On March, the poll panel ordered a reshuffle of senior officers, transferring two secretaries to other poll-bound States as observers, and deploying 13 IAS and five IPS officers in key poll management roles.

Ms. Banerjee said more than 50 senior officials had been “summarily and arbitrarily removed” even before the formal notification of elections. “The manner in which the Election Commission has singled out and targeted Bengal is not just unprecedented – it is deeply alarming,” she wrote on X.

“Even before the formal notification of elections, more than 50 senior officials… have been summarily and arbitrarily removed. This is not administrative action, this is political interference of the highest order,” she said.

Ms. Banerjee alleged that senior officers from agencies such as IB, STF and CID were being “selectively removed” from the State. “This is not governance. It reflects chaos, confusion, and sheer incompetence being passed off as authority,” she said.

Calling the situation as “nothing short of an undeclared emergency”, Ms. Banerjee said there was a “deliberate design to seize control of West Bengal through coercion and institutional manipulation”.

The Trinamool supremo described the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls as “deeply flawed” and went on to say that at a time when the process is underway and “over 200 lives have already been lost, the conduct of the commission reflects a clear bias and an uncomfortable submission to political interests”.

She said that supplementary electoral rolls were yet to be published “in clear disregard of the Supreme Court’s directions”.

Saying that the BJP has become “desperate”, the Chief Minister asked, “Why this relentless targeting of Bengal and its people? What satisfaction do they derive from forcing citizens, even after 78 years of Independence, to stand in queues and prove their own citizenship?”