EC removes West Bengal Chief Secretary Chakraborty, Home Secretary Meena after announcing poll dates

Chakraborty has been replaced by Dushyant Nariala, while Sanghamitra Ghosh will take over as the new Home Secretary.

Separately, the ECI directly suspended seven AEROs.

The ECI has appointed Dushyant Nariala, an IAS of the 1993 batch, as the new Chief Secretary of West Bengal, the ECI stated in a letter seen by ET. Sanghamitra Ghosh, an IAS of the 1997 batch, has been appointed as Principal Secretary of Home and Hill Affairs of West Bengal, the ECI said in a letter seen by ET. The directions of the Election Commission are to be implemented with immediate effect, and a report regarding the joining of the above officers is to be sent by 3 PM on March 16 (Monday), the ECI said.

The ECI has also said that the officers (present Chief and Home Secretaries) who have been “transferred out” shall not be posted in any election-related posts until the completion of the elections.

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On Sunday, the ECI announced that West Bengal will hold its assembly elections in two phases on April 23 and April 29.
As per sources, the new appointments come after the EC reviewed the poll preparedness for the West Bengal Assembly Election 2026.During the SIR in West Bengal, several instances of non-compliance by outgoing Chief Secretary Chakraborty over the past few months were flagged to the ECI, including inaction on filing FIRs against four election officials—two EROs and two AEROs. Other issues included irregularities in hearings conducted by the Basirhat BDO, delays by the state administration, and the transfer of three IAS officers. The outgoing chief secretary was also summoned by the ECI in February.

In August last year, retired Chief Secretary Manoj Pant was called to New Delhi by the ECI and asked to suspend two EROs and two AEROs for committing “grave lapses” and “failing to perform their duties” by violating the policy of data security and sharing their login credentials of the ER database with unauthorised persons.

On February 18, acting on directives from the ECI, the West Bengal government lodged FIRs against four election officials—two EROs and two AEROs—cases that had been pending since August last year. The BDO of Basirhat II was also suspended, and Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty submitted a compliance report within the deadline set by the ECI.