Meera Pandey retires as SEC, S R Upadhyay takes over

West Bengal State Election Commissioner Meera Pandey, under whose tenure the SEC and the Mamata Banerjee administration were at loggerheads over holding the last panchayat and the coming civic polls, retired today.
Joint secretary to the SEC Sabyasachi Ghosh told PTI that Pandey's successor to the post S R Upadhyay, a state civil service officer who is the Special Secretary at the Raj Bhavan, would take over the charge tomorrow.
He was appointed to the post by the state government last week.
The SEC chairperson's post is a six-year term or the incumbent reaching an age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. In the case of Pandey, she has reached the age of 65 years, SEC secretary Tapas Roy said.

In the middle of last year, the West Bengal government and the SEC were at loggerheads and failed to come to a consensus regarding conduct of elections to the panchayat bodies and the SEC moved court.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was subsequently compelled to abide by the Supreme Court order and agreed to the SEC's proposal of holding the panchayat polls in five phases under supervision of central forces.

The SEC has also moved the High Court seeking direction to the West Bengal government to hold elections in 17 municipalities by July 31 next.
The West Bengal government on July 15 filed an affidavit in the Calcutta High Court on the writ petition filed by the SEC, on a direction by the court.

Pandey, a retired IAS officer, was appointed to the post during the previous Left Front regime.