New Delhi: The number of officials that the Election Commission of India has ordered the transfers of in Bengal is 21 times the number in three other states combined, Hindustan Times has reported.A report by Harsh Yadav notes that the ECI announced the transfer of 483 administration and police officials since assembly elections were announced on March 15. In Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, 23 officers were ordered to be transferred in total.The ECI has ordered no transfers in the Union territory of Puducherry.In the 2021 assembly polls, the ECI had transferred only 15 officers in 2021.The Trinamool Congress has naturally pushed back against the scale of the transfers. “They have reshuffled officers. Those who have been appointed have been tasked to reject nominations. Check your documents [before submitting your nomination],” the report quotes Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee as having said while addressing an election rally at Nanoor in Birbhum district on April 1.Banerjee had said in a letter to the Election Commission that while the poll body has the authority to transfer officers during the election period, its actions are “arbitrary and unprecedented”.The HT report quotes an unidentified ECI official as having said that officials with doubtful conduct are the ones who have been removed.The report also lays down the particular chronology of the transfers:On March 15, the ECI ordered the transfer of 79 officials including the chief secretary, home secretary, director general of police, and Kolkata police commissioner.Then 38 IPS officers and 13 IAS officers were transferred on March 17 and 18.On March 23 and 29, the ECI removed 73 returning officers, and shifted 83 block development officers and assistant returning officers, respectively. As many as 184 inspector-ranking police officers have also been shifted.ECI has also deputed 13 senior IPS officers out of Bengal entirely to serve as election observers in other states, the report says.The ECI’s special intensive revision of electoral lists in Bengal have left 60 lakh voters in a state of limbo as they were pronounced to have been “under adjudication.”