Bengal' CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal appointed new Chief Secretary

Kolkata, (IANS): West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Manoj Agarwal, was on Monday appointed as the state's new Chief Secretary.

"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 of West Bengal until further orders. This is issued in the interest of public interest," a notification issued by Additional Chief Secretary, Personnel & Administrative Reforms, Rajesh Pandey, read.

Agarwal, as the CEO, West Bengal, is considered as the principal 'musketeer' of "The Three Musketeers” for making the recently concluded Assembly elections remarkable, from various viewpoints, such as the peaceful polling in contrast to the state's history of electoral violence and an unprecedented voting percentage, with the other two musketeers being poll observer, Subrata Gupta and special police observer, N.K. Mishra.

Gupta had already been appointed as the advisor to the new Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari, on Saturday, soon after he took oath as the state's ninth Chief Minister.

Since then, there were rumours in the corridors of power that Agarwal would be appointed as the new Chief Secretary. Finally, all speculations on this count came to an end with his name being officially declared for the top official post.

However, there was no information about the new posting of the current Chief Secretary, Dushyant Nariala. Insiders from the state Secretariat said that in all probability, Nariala will be released for a central deputation to New Delhi.

Agarwal, a 1990-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of West Bengal cadre, was the first choice of the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the chair among the panel of three bureaucrats forwarded by the West Bengal government for that post.

His colleagues in the CEO’s office describe him as a bureaucrat of extremely cool temperament with the ability of handling difficult situations with professional ease and impeccable transparency.

This was precisely why every suggestion of Agarwal regarding SIR and polling was accepted by the ECI’s top brass in New Delhi without almost any question asked, one colleague revealed. In fact, it was his brainchild that the elections this year were conducted in just two phases, compared to six to seven phases in the last few polls, the official added.