Bengal BJP Hits Out At Mamata Banerjee For Writing To EC On Transfer Of IPS Officers

West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh Saturday mocked at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for writing to the Election Commission over the transfer of four IPS officers and claimed that many more transfers are in the pipeline.

"This is just the beginning. Many more list of such transfer are on the pipeline. Why is the chief minister so angry? Is it because her plans to use the police to help her cadre loot votes and engage in rigging has fallen flat," Ghosh said.

The state BJP president alleged that most of the senior police officers in Bengal were behaving like TMC cadres.

His comments come against the backdrop of Banerjee writing to the EC to protest the transfer of four IPS officers, including the Kolkata and the Bidhannagar police commissioners.

The EC decision is "unfortunate, highly arbitrary, motivated and biased, and taken at the behest of the BJP," the chief minister's letter said, urging the poll panel to review the move.

The EC had on Friday night removed Kolkata Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma and Bidhannagar Police Commissioner Gyanwant Singh in a major shake-up ahead of the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls in the state.

Rajesh Kumar, Additional Director General of Police (ADG), Pollution Control Board, was made the new Kolkata top cop, while Natarajan Ramesh Babu, ADG and IGP, Operations, was named the Bidhannagar police commissioner.

The poll body also named Avannu Ravindranath, Deputy Commissioner (Airport Division) of Bidhannagar, as the new Birbhum Superintendent of Police and appointed Srihari Pandey, Deputy Commissioner of Kolkata Armed Police, 3rd Battalion, as the Diamond Harbour Superintendent of Police.

The EC's announcement came days after opposition parties in the state alleged that free and fair elections would not be possible under these officers.

(PTI)