EC’s Bengal SIR observer Subrata Gupta appointed adviser to CM Suvendu Adhikari

Gupta, a 1990-batch IAS officer, had recently served as the Election Commission’s Special Roll Observer for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls conducted ahead of the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.

His appointment places a senior and experienced bureaucrat at the centre of the new administration as the BJP begins its first term in office in the state.

An official notification issued on Saturday confirmed Gupta’s appointment as adviser to the chief minister.

The order stated that he would take charge immediately as the new government builds its administrative and policy framework following the Assembly election victory.

Officials said Gupta’s long experience in governance and public administration is expected to support policy coordination and decision-making within the Chief Minister’s Office.

Before joining the state government, Subrata Gupta was assigned by the Election Commission as a Special Roll Observer for West Bengal’s SIR exercise.

The revision of electoral rolls was conducted before the Assembly elections and formed an important part of the poll preparation process.

Gupta’s appointment to the Chief Minister’s Office comes shortly after he completed that assignment.

In another important bureaucratic reshuffle, the government appointed IAS officer Shantanu Bala as private secretary to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.

Bala belongs to the 2017 IAS batch and was serving as Additional District Magistrate of South 24 Parganas before his transfer to the Chief Minister’s Office.

Officials said the appointment was part of a wider restructuring process underway in the CMO after the change in government.

The government has directed both Subrata Gupta and Shantanu Bala to assume their new responsibilities with immediate effect.

Their appointments mark some of the first major administrative decisions taken by the BJP government after its sweeping victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections.

The BJP won 207 seats in the 294-member Assembly, ending the Trinamool Congress’s 15-year rule in West Bengal.

Suvendu Adhikari took oath as chief minister on Saturday and has begun assembling a new administrative team to support the functioning of his government.

The appointments of Subrata Gupta and Shantanu Bala indicate the government’s effort to quickly establish the organisational structure of the Chief Minister’s Office as it starts its first tenure in the state.