New Delhi: In a sharp attack, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday mocked the West Bengal government’s decision to appoint former chief election officer Manoj Agarwal as the new chief secretary and Subrata Gupta as chief advisor to Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, terming it a BJP-EC “chor bazaar” where “the bigger the theft, the bigger the reward.”
The opposition Congress charged that these placements underscore “brazen collusion and connivance” between the Election Commission and the BJP, with party communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh asserting on Monday that “there is not even an attempt to keep the collusion discrete or concealed.”
In a post in Hindi on X, Gandhi said: “In the BJP-EC’s ‘chor bazaar’ the bigger the theft, the bigger the reward.”
Ramesh pointed out that the BJP-controlle
d West Bengal government has named Agarwal, a 1990-batch IAS officer tasked with running the recent state Assembly elections, as the new chief secretary. Gupta, his contemporary from the same batch and special roll observer during the voter list revisions, was named chief advisor to Adhikari.
“These appointments reflect the brazen collusion and connivance between the ECI and the BJP. There is no longer even an attempt to keep the collusion discrete or concealed,” Ramesh stated.
He further alleged the moves prove the ECI’s lack of impartiality, acting solely to aid the BJP: “An entire state went to the election with 27 lakh people being debarred from voting. This was tactfully executed by the ECI to create an electoral advantage for the BJP.”
Agarwal, a West Bengal cadre IAS officer, led the EC-ordered Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls before the Assembly polls, resulting in nearly 91 lakh deletions.
The controversy erupted after Sunday’s official notifications of a major bureaucratic reshuffle in the chief minister’s office, appointing two IAS officers—including Gupta as advisor shortly after his oath—and seven WBCS (executive) officers, with Shantanu Bala named private secretary.