West Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal named Chief Secretary under BJP rule

West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal was appointed chief secretary of the new BJP government led by Suvendu Adhikari. A 1990-batch IAS officer, Agarwal earlier supervised the voter roll revision exercise before the Assembly elections that saw BJP secure a sweeping victory over TMC

Kolkata: West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal was appointed the chief secretary of the Suvendu Adhikari-led BJP government in the state, according to an official order issued on Monday.

Agarwal, a 1990-batch IAS officer of the West Bengal cadre, helmed the EC-mandated SIR exercise in the state in the run-up to the assembly polls in which around 91 lakh voters were removed from the electoral rolls.

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Incumbent Chief Secretary Dushyant Nariala was named Principal Resident Commissioner in New Delhi, the order stated. Nariwala, a 1993-batch IAS, was named the chief secretary of West Bengal by the poll body, removing Nandini Chakravorty from the position of the state’s top bureaucrat.

The BJP came to power for the first time in the state after handing a stunning defeat to the Trinamool Congress. The saffron party secured 207 seats in the 294-member assembly, reducing the TMC to 80 seats.