Two chief advisors to outgoing Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee resign

Kolkata: Two former chief secretaries – Alapan Bandyopadhyay and H K Dwivedi – have resigned as chief advisors to outgoing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, following the change in guard in the state, an official said on Wednesday.

The two retired IAS officers submitted the resignations on Tuesday, he said.

Eminent economist Abhirup Sarkar, too, has stepped down from the dual posts of chairman of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and West Bengal Small Industries Development Corporation (WBSIDC), the state secretariat official said.

Necessary administrative steps have been initiated following the resignations, he said.

Bandyopadhyay had been at the centre of a standoff between the state and the Centre in 2021 over a transfer order. Subsequently, he was appointed as chief advisor to the CM after his retirement.

Earlier, the state’s Advocate General Kishore Dutta had submitted his resignation to Governor R N Ravi.

The BJP secured 207 seats in the 294-member assembly, ending the TMC’s uninterrupted 15-year rule in West Bengal.