Major bureaucratic reshuffle in West Bengal ahead of SIR; DMs, SDOs transferred

Ahead of the announcement of a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 12 States and Union Territories, including West Bengal, the West Bengal government announced a major bureaucratic reshuffle, including the removal of several District Magistrates.

According to notices issued by the West Bengal government on October 24, around 64 IAS officers and hundreds of West Bengal Civil Service officers have been transferred from their postings.

A total of 17 districts have been appointed new District Magistrates (DMs), like North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Cooch Behar, Murshidabad, Malda, Purulia, Darjeeling, Birbhum, Jhargram and Medinipur. Several of these districts share borders with Bangladesh, Jharkhand, and/or Bihar.

A few erstwhile DMs have been reappointed as DMs of a different district, like IAS officer Preeti Goyal who was transferred as DM of Darjeeling district to DM of Malda district, and IAS officer Nitin Singhania, who was transferred as DM of Malda to DM of Murshidabad.

In other instances, DMs have been transferred to other departments like IAS officer Sharad Kumar Dwivedi, who has been moved from the post of North 24 Parganas DM to the post of Secretary in Health and Family Welfare Department, and IAS officer Sumit Gupta who was the DM of South 24 Parganas and has been appointed the Municipal Commissioner of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

This shuffle assumes significance considering that district administration officials, especially the DMs, play a key role in the SIR process. According to details announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the District Magistrates (DM) hear the first appeal against the decision of the Electoral Registration Officer in a given Assembly Constituency.

Other officers transferred by the West Bengal government include several Additional District Magistrates (ADMs), sub-divisional officers (SDO), officers on special duty (OSD) and block development officers (BDOs).

“Administrative reshuffle before an SIR is every State government’s right. For any reshuffling in administrative positions after the announcement of SIR, they have to seek the permission of the ECI,” Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said during his press conference on Monday (October 27, 2025).

Will keep a watch, says BJP

Meanwhile, the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wrote a letter to Election Commission officials alleging “continued violation of ECI guidelines by the Government of West Bengal” in light of the recent reshuffling.

“The West Bengal Government has carried out a mass scale of 235 officers… after the announcement of SIR by the ECI on 24 June 2025… The Bharatiya Janata Party strongly protests this irregular step in complete violation of the ECI guidelines of ordering these transfers without the approval of the ECI,” the letter reads.

Union Minister and BJP MP Sukanta Majumdar on Monday (October 27, 2025) said that the party will keep a watch on the newly-appointed DMs and ADMs.

“We have seen the order. We will see what the purpose of these transfers are, and on whose ‘gurumantra’ it was done… If these new DMs and ADMs are seen defying rules and working on Trinamool’s instructions, we will democratically resist it with full force,” Mr Majumdar said.

However, the State administration and leaders of the ruling dispensation have described these transfers as ‘routine’.