EC moves former Bengal home secretary J P Meena to Tamil Nadu as poll observer

KOLKATA: Bengal's former home secretary J P Meena, who was replaced by Sanghamitra Ghosh on Sunday, has been posted by the Election Commission (EC) as an observer in Tamil Nadu. According to an EC note, he will oversee the Tiruchirappalli (West) assembly constituency, which was won by the AIADMK in 2011 and a subsequent by-poll, before the DMK secured it in 2016 and 2021.

The EC has asked Meena to upload his photograph to the observers' portal and generate his identity card to begin his assignment. His visit to the constituency is expected next week. Nominations will commence on March 30, with polling scheduled for April 23.




"It is clear that the EC made up its mind much earlier to shift Bengal's home secretary out of the state. It can be well understood," a former IAS officer said. He noted that Meena's name had figured in the EC's earlier list of observers and that the state government's request for a reprieve did not yield results. "It is the EC's design to post him out of Nabanna. I have not seen any home secretary being posted as an observer in earlier elections; it is something unprecedented."

A senior EC official said Meena, a 2004-batch IAS officer, does not hold the rank of principal secretary, making him eligible for observer duty. Public Works Department (PWD) Secretary Antara Acharya and Food and Food Processing Department Principal Secretary Parvez Ahmed Siddiqui have been appointed as observers for other states.

Officers of the rank of principal secretary and additional chief secretary are typically not assigned such roles. He added that while home secretaries are usually drawn from among additional chief secretaries, a relatively junior officer had been appointed in this case. "While selecting IAS officers, their batches are considered rather than their present postings; thus, based on his batch, Meena was selected. It might be recalled that only senior officers who show interest in being observers are posted on poll duty," he said.