Election Commission in action: Bengal DGP and Kolkata Police Commissioner removed, Siddha Nath Gupta given command of police.

Kolkata, 16 March. After the announcement of assembly elections in West Bengal, the Election Commission of India has made a major reshuffle. The Commission has appointed Siddha Nath Gupta as the new Director General of Police (DGP) of West Bengal, replacing Piyush Pandey. Apart from this, Ajay Kumar Nand has been made the new Police Commissioner of Kolkata in place of Supratim Sarkar. Earlier, the Commission ordered transfers of Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty and State Home Secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena.

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in his press conference on Sunday, had assured that the elections in West Bengal would be violence-free and peaceful. The very next day, senior police officers of West Bengal, including West Bengal DGP and Kolkata Police Commissioner, were appointed and transferred. The Election Commission on Monday issued orders for immediate transfer and appointment of several top officials. According to the order, besides making 1992 batch IPS Siddha Nath Gupta the new DGP of West Bengal, Natarajan Ramesh Babu has been appointed DG (Correctional Services), Ajay Mukund Ranade as Additional DG (Law and Order).

Earlier, on Sunday night, the commission ordered transfers of West Bengal Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty and state Home Secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena. The Commission also ordered that both of them will not participate in any kind of election related work. Dushyant Nariyala has replaced Chakraborty, while Sanghamitra Ghosh has replaced Meena.

The ECI on Sunday announced that elections for 294 assembly seats in West Bengal will be held in two phases, with voting taking place on April 23 and April 29. In 2021, elections were held in Bengal in 8 phases. According to ECI, this time voting will be held on 152 assembly seats in the first phase and voting will be held on 142 seats in the second phase. Counting of votes for both phases will take place on May 4. The election process will be completed by May 6.