CHOPPING AND CHANGING TO DELIVER

LIKE a pack of cards shuffled and reshuffled to randomise the stack before dealing out to players, the Election Commission of India announced major changes to the bureaucracy in West Bengal in less than 24 hours after announcing the schedule for the state’s assembly elections.

- SHIKHA MUKERJEE

Characteristically, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reacted sharply, calling it “midnight mayhem”, complaining that it flouted protocol and suggesting it will hamper administrative work. For good measure, she claimed that all officers in West Bengal worked for the state.

The ECI’s challenge is quite extreme. It has opted for a two-phase election in a state where recent elections have been held in seven and eight phases. If chopping and changing the top officials is a first step, the aggressive-yet-predictable move reeks of the now-chronic distrust between the state and central institutions. It must be considered an exercise in ensuring a level playing field to kick off a free, fair and violence-free election.

The Trinamool Congress is already tainted with a reputation of unleashing violence before and after elections. The BJP has played victim in the past. But its local leadership—from the noisy Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, to past state party president Dilip Ghosh—has warned there will be retaliation. Ghosh has gone so far as to declare there will be more injuries than heads bandaged and legs in casts—an obvious albeit oblique reference to Banerjee’s accident in 2021 after which she campaigned in a wheelchair.