Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI), on Friday, appointed senior IAS officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal as the new Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal. Agarwal, a 1990 batch officer of the West Bengal cadre, will be overseeing the state Assembly elections in 2026.
Before assuming this role, he served as the Additional Chief Secretary of the State Fire and Emergency Services Department. He had also served in various departments, including Forest, Disaster Management and North Bengal Development department. As per regulations, the state government submits a panel of one or more candidates for the CEO position, from which the Election Commission selects the final appointee. Agarwal succeeds Ariz Aftab, who served as CEO since February 2017. During his tenure, Aftab successfully conducted the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as well as the 2021 state Assembly polls. Following his retirement, in December 2024, Dibyendu Das managed the responsibilities as acting CEO until Agarwal’s appointment. Meanwhile, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has already expressed its dissatisfaction over the role of ECI in checking the fake voters. During a recent all-party meeting at the CEO office the Trinamool leaders pointed out that the names of people from other states are being included in the state’s voter lists. There has been an attempt to conduct the poll in Bengal in a similar way which was done in Maharashtra and Delhi during the Assembly elections. EPIC numbers of many voters from Gujarat, Haryana and Assam identically matched with the EPIC number of voters in Bengal. Trinamool Congress already made public these voter lists.