Omar Abdullah Says EC Transfers In Bengal Will Not Affect Election Results
Omar Abdullah says EC transfers won’t affect Bengal poll outcomes
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said the Election Commission’s large‑scale transfers of top officials in poll‑bound West Bengal will not alter the state’s assembly‑election outcome, arguing that it is political leaders, not officers, who win elections. Abdullah made the remarks in a social‑media post, backing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) while criticising what he described as a pattern of “gerrymandering” in non‑BJP‑ruled states.
Following the announcement of the West Bengal Assembly elections, the Election Commission ordered a major administrative reshuffle, including the transfer of Chief Secretary Nandini Chakravorty and Home Secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena, as well as the removal of Director General of Police Peeyush Pandey and Kolkata Police Commissioner Supratim Sarkar. The move triggered protests from the TMC, which accused the poll panel of targeting the state’s ruling establishment; Abdullah has echoed that line, claiming such “sweeping transfers” occur mainly in states where the BJP is not in power.
Abdullah wrote that no amount of effort by the Election Commission to “manipulate the field” would change the final result, and predicted that Mamata Banerjee would secure a “thumping majority” once votes are counted. He argued that voters ultimately decide elections based on the performance, image and campaign of political leaders, not through bureaucratic churns or administrative re‑arrangements.
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At the same time, the J&K CM acknowledged that the transfers could create short‑term management and coordination challenges for the state machinery in the run‑up to polling. Yet he insisted that, in the long run, it is the credibility and leadership of parties and their chief ministers that determine electoral verdicts, using West Bengal as an example of why “officers don’t win elections for political parties, leaders of political parties do.”
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