Bigger the theft, the bigger the reward, says Rahul Gandhi in a dig at bureaucratic appointments in Bengal

Mounting a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Election Commission of India (ECI) over the appointment of former Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal Manoj Agarwal as the new Chief Secretary of the State, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday (May 12, 2026) alleged that “the bigger the theft, the bigger the reward”.

On Monday, the State government had appointed Mr. Agarwal, a 1990-batch IAS officer who oversaw the recent Assembly elections in West Bengal, as the new Chief Secretary.

Subrata Gupta, also a 1990-batch IAS officer who served as Special Roll Observer during the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the State, had been appointed Chief Adviser to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.

“In the BJP-EC’s ‘chor bazaar’, the bigger the theft, the bigger the reward,” Mr. Gandhi said in a post on X.

Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh claimed the appointments show “brazen collusion and connivance” between the EC and the BJP. “There is no longer even an attempt to keep the collusion discrete or concealed,” Mr. Ramesh said in a post on X.

Alleging that the EC acted “exclusively to benefit the BJP”, the Congress leader claimed that lakhs of voters were disenfranchised during the electoral roll revision exercise.

Mr. Agarwal, a West Bengal cadre officer, had headed the EC-mandated SIR of electoral rolls in the run-up to the Assembly election. According to Congress leaders, around 91 lakh names were removed from the voter list during the exercise.

The West Bengal government on Sunday carried out a bureaucratic reshuffle, appointing two IAS officers and seven WBCS (Executive) officers in the Chief Minister’s Office, according to official notifications.

Mr. Gupta was appointed Adviser to the Chief Minister hours after Mr. Adhikari was sworn in, while Shantanu Bala was named Private Secretary to the Chief Minister.