In BJP-EC's 'chor bazaar', bigger the theft, bigger the reward: Rahul Gandhi's dig at WB govt appointments

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi slammed the appointments of erstwhile chief election officer Manoj Agarwal as the new West Bengal chief secretary and Subrata Gupta as the chief advisor to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, claiming that in the BJP-EC "chor bazaar", the bigger the theft, the bigger the reward.

The Congress has said that the appointments reflected the "brazen collusion and connivance" between the BJP and the Election Commission.

In a post in Hindi on his X handle made on Tuesday, he said, "In the BJP-EC's 'chor bazaar'' the bigger the theft, the bigger the reward," a reply to the official announcement made by West Bengal government.

Manoj Agarwal, a West Bengal cadre officer, played a major part in the EC-mandated Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the run-up to the Assembly polls, in which over 90 lakh voters were removed from the voter list.

Subrata Gupta was appointed advisor to the chief minister, hours after he was sworn in, while Shantanu Bala was named his private secretary.

The state government appointed two IAS officers and seven WBCS (executive) officers in the chief minister's office (CMO), according to official notifications.

Earlier on Monday, the opposition party had said that there is not even an attempt to keep the collusion discrete or concealed.

Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, had noted that the BJP-led West Bengal government has appointed the erstwhile chief election officer Agarwal, a 1990-batch IAS officer responsible for overseeing the recent Assembly elections in the state, as the new chief secretary.

Similarly, Gupta, also a 1990-batch IAS officer who oversaw the SIR deletions in Bengal as the special roll observer, has been appointed the chief advisor to the Chief Minister, Ramesh pointed out.

"These appointments reflect the brazen collusion and connivance between the ECI and the BJP. There is no longer even an attempt to keep the collusion discrete or concealed," Ramesh alleged.

The appointments are a testimony that the ECI was not impartial and acted exclusively to benefit the BJP, he further claimed.

An entire state went to the election with 27 lakh people being debarred from voting. This was tactfully executed by the ECI to create an electoral advantage for the BJP, Ramesh said.

(with PTI inputs)