New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led West Bengal government on Monday (May 11) appointed the state chief electoral officer (CEO), Manoj Kumar Agarwal, as chief secretary, less than two days after elevating retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and the Election Commission of India’s ‘special roll observer’ Subrata Gupta as the advisor to newly-appointed chief minister Suvendu Adhikari.A 1990-batch IAS officer, Agarwal was in charge of the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and the conduct of the high-voltage Assembly elections in Bengal as the state’s CEO and ex-officio additional chief secretary, home and hill affairs (Election) Department.The appointment came on the orders of the West Bengal governor, R.N. Ravi, as per the official notification. “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 to the Government of West Bengal until further order(s). This is issued in the interest of public service,” the notification read.West Bengal government’s notification on IAS officer Manoj Agarwal’s appointment at chief secretary.Gupta was moved in as the CM advisor just hours after Adhikari’s swearing-in ceremony on May 9, just two days after he was relieved by the poll body from his role in the SIR exercise. Together, Gupta and Agarwal’s appointments form a major overlap of powers in the state.An alumnus of IIT Kanpur, Agarwal is considered one of the most experienced bureaucrats in the state administration. According to a report in The New Indian Express, while several officers from his batch, including Vivek Kumar, Hridesh Mohan and Vivek Bharadwaj, remain in service, “Agarwal has emerged as the frontrunner for the top bureaucratic post owing to his performance in handling key responsibilities over the years.”Notably, the SIR has drawn ire and charges of completely distorting the electoral field, after approximately 91 lakh names were knocked off the rolls and at least 27 lakh voters left in limbo, waiting for a decision on their right to vote, and denied their right to franchise this time.Targeting former chief minister Mamata Banerjee in a post on X, the BJP said: “Unlike former CM Mamata Banerjee, who had subverted the bureaucracy by blatantly flouting the rules governing the IAS by superseding dozens of officers, the BJP Government of West Bengal has appointed the senior most IAS officer working in the state, Shri Manoj Agarwal, as the Chief Secretary of West Bengal in keeping with its promise to restore the dignity of the laws of the land.”Ahead of the elections, the Trinamool Congress government had criticised Agarwal, who was set to retire in July, over his conduct of the SIR exercise in the state, calling him biased and accusing him of “partisan conduct” towards the BJP. The party had even raised the issue of a 2009 CBI probe against the IAF officer in which he was charged for amassing Rs 1.46 crore in disproportionate assets in a violation of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Note: An earlier version of this report misstated the name of the Bengal governor. The error has been rectified.