Kolkata, April 20: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has asked for 12 names of bureaucrats (both IAS and IPS officers) from the West Bengal government who are expected to take the places of those officers who the ECI chooses to remove ahead of the next phase of West Bengal Assembly Elections 2016. This development came after the poll removed a couple of police officers in two districts — Murshidabad and Nadia.
The state government led by Mamata Banerjee has been at loggerheads with the Election Commission after it removed 44 officers till date without consulting the Nabanna, the state secretariat. The state government had protested after ECI’s unilateral move to remove officers and that may be the reason they have sought names from the state government this time. (Also Read: Mamata Banerjee justifies chief secy giving reply to Election Commission’s letter)
It is learnt that ECI is mulling to remove at least two district magistrates and two district police chiefs ahead of the next two phases of assembly elections. The names that have been sent to the poll panel may include Santanu Basu, Smaraki Mahapatra, Rashmi Kamal and V. Lalitalakshmi. The full bench of commission led by Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi seemed unhappy with authorities in Burdwan, Hooghly, Howrah, North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas.
Sources also informed that soon after receiving the letter from the Election Commission about the names of the officers, chief secretary Basudeb Banerjee, home secretary Moloy De and DGP GMP Reddy tried to contact chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who was busy campaigning in Howrah. However, they got in touch with a junior official who was accompanying her and spoke to Mamata before finalising the list of officers.
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