West Bengal CEO Under Fire from Trinamool Congress Ahead of State Assembly Polls
Months before he is set to retire, West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal has found himself in the crosshairs of the incumbent Trinamool Congress (TMC) led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ahead of the upcoming state Assembly polls. With the TMC regularly attacking the Election Commission (EC), especially over its contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the party on Wednesday formally lodged a complaint with the poll body against Agarwal for his allegedly “biased and partisan conduct” in favour of the principal Opposition BJP in the current elections. The TMC has alleged that the CEO was “misusing his powers” to influence voters, accusing him of engaging primarily with BJP supporters and visiting certain areas, including Nandigram on April 5, along with local BJP leaders. Describing Agarwal’s moves as a “clear violation of protocols”, the TMC has alleged that the CEO was “deliberately swaying voters in the BJP’s favour”. The TMC has even raised a 2009 Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe against Agarwal over disproportionate assets to question the CEO’s credentials. While Agarwal was serving as Commissioner (Land Disposal-Urban Development) in the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the CBI had raided his residence and other properties in the national capital. In 2013, the CBI had 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. In a post on X last month, TMC leader and Bengal minister Chandrima Bhattacharya questioned Agarwal over this case. “Manoj Agarwal warns officers about ‘Lakshman Rekha’ and lectures them on ‘service rules’. But where was this moral sermon when, as per a CBI chargesheet, nearly 30 bank accounts and six plots worth crores – three in Dwarka and others in Gurgaon, Greater Noida, and Kolkata – were allegedly linked to your wife?” “Before preaching ethics, answer the questions on record. Accountability first, lecture later,” Bhattacharya added, citing a 2013 news report on the case. Responding to Chandrima’s allegations, Agarwal wrote on X, “In brief, the chargesheet ultimately resulted in an honourable acquittal by the learned Special Judge. Mrs. Agarwal has owned property since before her marriage and has been filing her income tax returns consistently since 1983.” “All her assets – whether acquired or disposed of – along with every source of income, have been fully declared and duly assessed by the Income Tax Department over the past 43 years. Her financial affairs have always remained transparent and fully compliant with the law. The attempt to ‘give a dog a bad name and hang him’ has been exposed after this long agnipariksha . Truth and the rule of law will undoubtedly prevail,” said Agarwal. Before he became an embattled poll official, Agarwal began his career as a 1990-batch Bengal cadre IAS officer. He served in a range of administrative roles across Bengal, including as the District Magistrate of Uttar Dinajpur district, where he grew close to late Congress stalwart and former Union minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, who hailed from the district. Later, Agarwal became Dasmunsi’s personal secretary in Delhi while the leader was the Union minister of Information and Broadcasting. In 2017, Agarwal was appointed the Principal Secretary of Bengal’s Food and Supplies Department. But, in 2018, after alleged irregularities emerged in the Public Distribution System (PDS) – which led to then state Food and Supplies Minister Jyotipriyo Mallick being arrested by the CBI in 2023 – Agarwal was “shunted out” from the department, said sources in the Nabanna, Bengal’s state secretariat. In March 2025, Agarwal was appointed by the EC as Bengal’s CEO. At the time, his selection had raised eyebrows as the EC had rejected the state government’s first shortlist of candidates and sought a revised panel of three IAS officers who will be retiring shortly after May 2026. The poll panel’s demand meant it wanted a CEO who would retire after overseeing the 2026 Assembly polls, and could therefore “not be put under any kind of pressure by Bengal’s ruling dispensation during the elections,” a senior bureaucrat said. In administrative circles, Agarwal was known as an “upright officer” capable of handling the “challenge” of the CEO’s post during the SIR and Assembly polls. “Manoj Agarwal is an official who never worked under any political pressure. He always does what he thinks is the right thing to do. That is why he was given the challenge of the SIR and Assembly elections. Soon after elections, he will retire from his service, so there is no chance of a return to the state administration,” said a senior EC official. – With inputs from Mahender Singh Manral
