Fresh overhaul in Suvendu Adhikari administration likely in near future, say officials
The police and administrative machinery of the newly installed Suvendu Adhikari-led BJP government in West Bengal seems poised for another sweeping recalibration in the months ahead, clear indications of which were apparent on the very first day, though officials indicated the exercise may unfold in phases.The transition towards a more stable administrative structure would follow the Election Commission of India’s unprecedented scale of pre-poll reshuffle across the State bureaucracy and police establishment, they said.The first unmistakable sign of the impending transition emerged within hours of Mr. Adhikari assuming office on May 9, as the government moved swiftly with two key appointments, followed by a series of re-appointments in the State’s mid-level bureaucracy.Retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta, who had served as the poll panel’s Special Roll Observer during the SIR exercise, was named Advisor to the CM, while Shantanu Bala, Additional District Magistrate of South 24 Parganas, was appointed Private Secretary to the CM – appointments widely viewed within administrative circles as the opening moves of a broader restructuring of the State apparatus.Gupta replaced two former chief secretaries – Alapan Bandyopadhyay and H K Dwivedi – who tendered their resignations as chief advisors to former chief minister Mamata Banerjee on May 5, a day after poll results confirmed a change of guard in the State.Mr. Bala, on the other hand, substituted career civil servant Gautam Sanyal, the erstwhile principal secretary to Ms. Banerjee who held the position as co-terminus with that of the former CM.Soon after, the State government initiated another significant churn within the administrative establishment, signalling a wider realignment of power corridors in Bengal’s bureaucracy.In a sweeping order, at least 46 WBCS (Executive) officers – who served as private secretaries and officers on special duty to ministers in the outgoing regime – were reassigned to new postings across the State administration.The ripples of the transition extended swiftly to the nerve centre of governance itself, with the State also reshuffling 16 officers attached to the Chief Minister’s Office.“The Mamata Banerjee government never cared for meritorious IAS and IPS officers of the State, isolated them, often forcing them to leave Bengal,” CM Adhikari told reporters on Saturday (May 9, 2026).“But, this government will need these officers to implement the policy decisions the new cabinet makes,” he added, hinting at a fresh overhaul in the State’s police and executive network.In the run-up to the assembly elections announced on March 15, the ECI unleashed an unprecedented administrative upheaval across Bengal, transferring as many as 483 officials in one of the most sweeping pre-poll crackdowns the State has witnessed in recent memory.The reshuffle cut through every tier of governance – from the highest echelons of the bureaucracy and police leadership to district administrations, returning officers, BDOs and hundreds of officers posted at police stations across the State.The scale of the exercise dwarfed similar actions undertaken in other poll-bound States put together, underscoring the ECI’s determination to tighten its grip over Bengal’s volatile and violent electoral landscape.At the heart of the overhaul lay a dramatic recasting of the State’s power structure. Chief Secretary Nandini Chakravorty was moved out and replaced by Dushyant Nariala, while Home Secretary Sanghamitra Ghosh took charge in place of J .C. Meena.Director General of Police Peeyush Pandey was removed, with Siddh Nath Gupta appointed acting DGP, even as Kolkata Police Commissioner Supratim Sarkar was transferred and succeeded by Ajay Kumar Nand. Pandey was later reassigned as the State’s Director (Security), replacing Manoj Kumar Verma.The administrative tremors did not stop there.The ECI also ordered the removal of 19 senior IPS officers – including six police commissioners and 13 district
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