Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has taken her conflict of attrition with the ballot panel into territory by no means earlier than undertaken by any earlier CM, by personally showing earlier than the Supreme Courtroom in a case towards the Election Fee’s Particular Intensive Assessment (SIR) train in West Bengal.
Banerjee’s look comes within the backdrop of a sequence of disagreements between the West Bengal authorities and the EC, culminating on Monday when the CM referred to as Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar a “liar” and mentioned she would help any try and “impeach” him.
McIntosh Byrne, the state government-owned engineering and development PSU, on October 13 wrote to West Bengal Chief Election Officer (CEO) looking for exemption from finishing up infrastructure work at over 80,000 polling stations within the state forward of the meeting elections, stating that it doesn’t have the capability to hold out the work. The corporate argued that it must be allowed to withdraw with out penalty as a result of no settlement had been signed with the EC, the folks mentioned.
McIntosh’s letter got here three months after he was assigned the job by a disabled individual and acquired a harsh rebuke from the CEO. Voting officers warned the board of prison proceedings if McIntosh refused to carry out its duties.
Amid the deadlock over the difficulty, West Bengal state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya filed a grievance within the Calcutta Excessive Courtroom on January 14, alleging that McIntosh Byrne’s sudden withdrawal would disrupt the graceful conduct of polls. On January 30, the courtroom directed the EC and the state authorities to submit a report on the difficulty inside per week.
*FIR towards officer
On August 5 final 12 months, the EC had requested the Trinamool Congress authorities to droop and droop 4 officers and one contract worker for allegedly fraudulently registering 127 voters utilizing solid paperwork in Baruipur-Purba and Moina meeting constituencies.
The 4 included two West Bengal civil servants serving as Election Registration Officers (EROs), Debottam Datta Chowdhury (Baruipur Purva) and Biplab Sarkar (Moina), and two assistant EROs, Tathagata Mondal (Baruipur) and Sudipta Das (Moina).
As no motion was taken until August 13, the EC summoned the then Chief Secretary Manoj Pant to Delhi and gave the officers seven days to take motion.
On the final day of the deadline, the 4 law enforcement officials had been suspended however the EC’s plea to additionally file an FIR towards them was ignored.
Final month, the EC had requested Nandini Chakraborty, who took over as West Bengal chief secretary on January 1, to report on the difficulty inside 72 hours. However once more no motion was seen.
Lastly, the TMC authorities has written to the EC stating that departmental proceedings have been initiated towards the 4 officers and any motion will likely be taken thereafter.
*Adjustments in IAS officers
From December 1, 2025 to January 21, 2026, the West Bengal authorities transferred or gave extra duty to 3 IAS officers, Smita Pandey, Aswini Kumar Yadav and Randhir Kumar, who had been appointed as ballot observers by the EC.
On January 27, the EC ordered Chief Secretary Chakraborty to withdraw the switch order. It added that throughout the SIR interval, “the Principal Secretary should be sure that no personnel concerned within the SIR course of are transferred with out the prior approval of the Fee.”
The state authorities responded that it was basically sending staff to “comparatively unimportant” positions, which might permit them to focus extra on SIR.
* FIR towards MLA
On January 14, the EC had requested the District Election Officer (DEO) of Murshidabad to lodge an FIR towards TMC Farakka MLA Manirul Islam for allegedly vandalizing the native block workplace and submit a compliance report by January 22. The FIR order follows the Islamic aspect’s clarification on the EC’s earlier notification that the fee was performing solely towards “Rahim” and “not Ram”.
On January 22, one other district workplace in Bengal was vandalized, this time in Itahar in North Dinajpur. Based on the police, a mob allegedly led by the folks of native TMC MLA Mosaraf Hossain ransacked the workplace after there have been studies of individuals dying as a result of stress over SIR. The EC additionally ordered an FIR towards Hossain.
Thus far, no FIR has been filed towards Islam or Hossain by the district administration and each the EC and the state authorities have been silent on the difficulty in latest occasions.
*Minister of Dwelling Affairs appointed as central ballot monitor
On January 27, the EC appointed Dwelling Minister Jagdish Prasad Meena as one of many 15 central observers for the upcoming state meeting elections and requested Meena to attend the central observers’ assembly scheduled for February 5 and 6. The EC additionally requested the West Bengal CEO to make sure the presence of Meena and different officers within the assembly.
The state authorities has written to the EC looking for exemption from observer duties for 9 officers, together with the house minister, as they’re engaged in essential work for the state authorities, and advised a special title.
On February 3, the EC responded that the exemption software was “rejected”. “Accordingly, the involved officers could also be directed to attend the briefing session on the set date and time for every batch.”
*Particular officer vs. particular officer
On January 27, the TMC authorities despatched “particular officers” to 23 districts within the state to supervise what it referred to as the state’s “developmental course of”. The order mentioned, “Senior officers of the state authorities are being deputed every so often to numerous districts and areas to oversee numerous improvement works underneath numerous flagship schemes together with Amada Para Amada Samadhan, Patashree and so forth.”
This was seen as a counter transfer to the EC’s appointment of former IAS officer Subrata Gupta as a ‘particular roll’ observer and 12 different function observers in Bengal in the beginning of the SIR. The EC has since appointed different officers, bringing the whole quantity at the moment overseeing SIR to 34.
Along with this, the EC has roughly 7,000 “microobservers” who oversee public hearings as a part of the SIR course of.
