New Delhi: As the Election Commission undertakes Bengal's special intensive revision of electoral rolls – its first revision of the rolls in two decades, one man is at the centre of the political storm: Manoj Kumar Agarwal, the state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO). The process he now oversees is a high-stakes effort that could alter the electoral landscape before the 2026 assembly elections.

Agarwal is an IAS officer with a reputation for being "upright". Yet he carries the baggage of a past CBI investigation into disproportionate assets.

The eye of the storm

The SIR, which began with door-to-door enumeration on November 4, 2025, is not a mere administrative update. The Election Commission of India (ECI) calls it a "deep revision" to cleanse the rolls. BJP has alleged "electoral roll inflations" and the presence of bogus voters, while the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) sees the SIR as a tool to disenfranchise citizens.

The process has ignited anxiety, particularly within communities like the Matuas. A ground report by The Telegraph in North 24-Parganas found over half the voters there could not be linked to the 2002 electoral roll. This has created a chasm: the BJP promotes the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as a "safety net," while chief minister Mamata Banerjee leads protests, vowing to "ensure the fall of the BJP-led government at the Centre if a single eligible voter was omitted.”

Appointment by design

Manoj Kumar Agarwal, a 1990-batch IAS officer, was appointed to this role in March 2025. The ECI rejected the state’s initial list and requested a new panel of officers who would retire after the 2026 assembly polls. Agarwal, with a July 2026 retirement date, fit the profile. A senior bureaucrat explained the logic: an officer nearing retirement "could not be put under any kind of pressure by Bengal’s ruling dispensation."

Agarwal's past bolsters this perception of independence. Sources cited by The Telegraph called him an "upright officer" who was "shunted out" as the state's food and supplies secretary in 2018 after ordering an FIR over irregularities in the public distribution system. Years later, the minister then in charge of that department, Jyotipriyo Mallick, was arrested in the same corruption case.

Shadow from the past

Agarwal’s record, however, is complicated by a past Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into disproportionate assets.

The allegation entered the public record over a decade ago. In a 2010 written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Prithviraj Chavan, then a Union minister, included Agarwal's name in a list of IAS officers under investigation, a fact confirmed by the official parliamentary document.

The CBI, focusing on assets acquired between 1990 and 2008, alleged Agarwal had amassed wealth 116% beyond his known income. The probe led to a raid on his Delhi residence in 2009. According to a 2015 Indian Express report, the CBI alleged six plots – in Dwarka, Gurgaon, Greater Noida, and Kolkata – were purchased in his wife's name, with his father-in-law allegedly used as a conduit. In October 2015, a special CBI court summoned Agarwal, his wife, and his father-in-law.

While a 2025 Telegraph report mentioned the case was later dismissed, the investigation remains a significant part of his official history.

Struggle for control

Today, as CEO, Agarwal is at the centre of a tug-of-war between the ECI and the West Bengal government. In July 2025, the ECI wrote to the state's Chief Secretary demanding a separate Election Department, delinked from any state ministry. The commission cited a "lack of financial and administrative autonomy" for the CEO, noting Agarwal's office was a subordinate branch of the Home & Hill Affairs Department.

The move was seen politically. The BJP supported it, but former CEO Jawhar Sircar called it a "power-grabbing tool," and the TMC condemned it as an "RSS conspiracy."

This friction is mirrored on the ground. Booth Level Officers (BLOs), the foot soldiers of the SIR, have submitted a deputation to Agarwal’s office expressing fears of "threats and intimidation" and calling for paramilitary protection.

As the SIR proceeds, every decision Agarwal makes will be scrutinised. Chosen by the ECI to be insulated from state influence, he oversees a process the BJP champions and the TMC decries as a "trap." With his retirement timed to the 2026 election, the man picked to ensure a fair process will be defined by its outcome.

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