Kolkata, Apr 8: A day after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee dared the Election Commission of India (EC) to take action against her for not complying with its order to transfer eight officials, including the police chiefs of five districts, the state administration agreed to budge.
Though the state government said on Tuesday that transferring these officials would inconvenience the administration in the run-up to the general election, it later said it was willing to release these officials from their current posts, but refused to accept those named by the poll watchdog as their replacements.
On Monday, EC had without consulting the state government issued an order transferring eight officials from their current posts because seven of them were found to have favoured the ruling Trinamool Congress party in the recent past. These seven officials were also barred from taking any election-related responsibility.
Banerjee reacted within an hour, saying at a rally that her government would not transfer a “single officer”, while calling EC’s order as a ploy to undermine regional parties in states not ruled by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The state wrote to EC asking it to reconsider its decision, but the poll watchdog held its ground and threatened to cancel elections in West Bengal if the officials weren’t transferred. It isn’t immediately known whether EC will agree to the state’s proposal on the replacements for these officials.
A decision on the standoff will be made by EC in Delhi.
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