West Bengal’s Chief Election Officer (CEO), Manoj Agarwal, who oversaw the recently held state assembly elections and Special Intensive Revision (SIR), has been appointed as the Chief Secretary of state.
According to an order issued by the Governor, Manoj Agarwal, who was previously the state CEO and ex-officio Additional Chief Secretary of the Home and Hill Affairs (Election) Department, has been appointed as the Chief Secretary to the state government.
A senior IAS officer of the 1990 West Bengal cadre, Agarwal as CEO supervised the conduct of the 2026 Assembly polls as well as the Special Intensive Revision of voter lists.
Following this, sources in the BJP said: “Unlike former CM Mamata Banerjee, who had subverted the bureaucracy by blatantly flouting the rules governing the IAS by superseding dozens of officers, the BJP Government of West Bengal has appointed the senior most IAS officer working in the state, Shri Manoj Agarwal, as the Chief Secretary of West Bengal in keeping with it’s promise to restore the dignity of the laws of the land."
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government on Monday announced cabinet portfolios for five ministers, who were sworn in alongside Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday.
BJP leaders Dilip Ghosh, Ashok Kirtaniya, Khudiram Tudu, Agnimitra Paul and Nisith Pramanik were appointed as ministers of the newly-formed BJP government in West Bengal, after the party stormed to power on a historic mandate, ending Mamata Banerjee’s 15-year reign.
