4 min readMay 11, 2026 08:24 PM IST
First published on: May 11, 2026 at 08:19 PM IST
The BJP government in West Bengal on Monday appointed the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal as the next Chief Secretary.
Agarwal, who is set to retire in July, had faced criticism from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The move comes days after the government appointed the Election Commission’s special observer for West Bengal, Subrata Gupta, as an advisor to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.
“The Governor is pleased to appoint Shri Manoj Kumar Agarwal, IAS (WB:1990), Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal and ex-officio Additional Chief Secretary, Home and Hill Affairs (Election) Department, Govt. of West Bengal as Chief Secretary to the Government of West Bengal,” read an order dated May 11. Agarwal succeeds Dushyant Nariala, an IAS officer of the 1993 batch, who has been moved to New Delhi as the Principal Resident Commissioner.
On Monday, Agarwal accompanied Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari in his meetings with administrative officials at the state secretariat, Nabanna.
“Unlike Mamta 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 seniormost IAS officer working in the state, Shri Manoj Agarwal, as the Chief Secretary of West Bengal in keeping with its promise to restore the dignity of the laws of the land,” the BJP posted on X.
A former IIT-ian, Agarwal was appointed the West Bengal CEO in March 2025 after rejecting the state’s first shortlist of candidates and seeking a revised panel of three IAS officers who would be retiring shortly after May 2026. The poll panel wanted a CEO who would retire after overseeing the 2026 Assembly polls and, therefore, could “not be put under any kind of pressure by Bengal’s ruling dispensation (the TMC) during the elections”, a senior bureaucrat said.
Since the SIR exercise began in West Bengal on November 4 last year, former CM Mamata Banerjee on several occasions criticised Agarwal. Last month, the TMC lodged a complaint with the EC, accusing Agarwal of bias and “partisan conduct” favouring the BJP. The face-off escalated when senior TMC minister Chandrima Bhattacharya even raised a 2009 Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe against Agarwal over disproportionate assets to question the CEO’s credentials. In 2013, the CBI filed a chargesheet alleging Agarwal and his wife, Rooma, had amassed Rs 1.46 crore in disproportionate assets in a violation of the Prevention of Corruption Act. However, in 2018, Agarwal was acquitted by a Delhi court, a decision that was challenged by the CBI in 2020 and remains pending in the Delhi High Court.
Agarwal became close to late Congress leader Priyaranjan Dasmunsi in 1999 when he was the District Magistrate of Uttar Dinajpur, Dasmunsi’s home district. Later, he became the Personal Secretary of Dasmunsi in Delhi while the latter was the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister. He worked in the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) when the disproportionate assets case was filed.
Sources in Nabanna said Agarwal, a former Bengal food and supplies secretary, was “shunted out” after asking officials to file an FIR over PDS irregularities in 2018. In October 2023, the CBI arrested then food and supplies minister Jyotipriyo Mallick on charges of ration irregularities.
