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The Mamata Banerjee-Election Commission face-off saw many twists and turns through the day. Even as the West Bengal Chief Ministers oftened her stand by agreeing to transfer the government officials but not the replacements, by evening it became clear that the Election Commission was not budging from its demand.
Responding to the chief secretary's letter earlier in the day that explained thestate government's "inability" to carry out the ElectionCommission's (EC's) order, the EC responded in the evening, asking the state to implement the orders by 10 am, Wednesday.
This prompted the state government officials to hold an emergency meetingat the state secretariat here. Although the final outcome was not known, sources suggested, the transfer files had been kept ready. The final decision would be taken by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Hours before EC's response, Banerjee, however, reiterated today during anelection rally in Borojora at Bannkura districts that she would not accept poll panel's order issued yesterday.
The EC yesterday had ordered the transfer of five super intendents ofpolice and three district magistrates and additional district magistrates. Against six of them, there were allegations of being biased towards TMC and one was a routine transfer.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took a defiant stand, saying she would "not remove a single officer" and "was ready to face the consequences."
In today's letter to the EC, the state government toned down indicating the state was ready to accept the transfers,but not the replacements.
In the letter, which chief secretary Sanjay Mitra said was written in accordance with the "chief minister's direction", the state government has appealed to the EC to reconsider its decision on transfer orders.
Also, government sources suggested, as per the normal practice in such a scenario, the EC consults the state government and seeks three names for each replacement. However, in yesterday's order, the EC went ahead to issue the transfer order and specified the replacements without any consultation.
Pointingit out, along with today's letter the chief secretary has also sent apanel of IAS/IPS officers from which the EC could choose the replacements.
"For example, for Malda SP is replaced by an officer who is a 2009-batch IPS but the DSP there is from the 2008-IPS batch. How can the state government let this happen? The EC has the right to transfer, but had they consulted us, these issued could have been avoided," a government official said.
The state may have a point in the fact the the normal procedure for finalising replacements was not followed, though constitutional experts are saying that the EC is well within its right to issue theorder." It is upto the EC, what it will do. It may postpone the poll. It may even approach the President or the Supreme Court," constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap said.
Meanwhile,the West Bengal government too is readying for a possible confrontation and has sought legal opinion from the Advocate General on the issue.
