Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticized the West Bengal government's recent appointments, particularly that of Manoj Agarwal as chief secretary and Subrata Gupta as chief advisor to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Election Commission of collusion, stating that in the 'chor bazaar' of the BJP-EC, the greater the theft, the larger the reward. Gandhi highlighted that Agarwal, a 1990-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, was responsible for overseeing the Assembly elections during which approximately 27 lakh voters were barred from voting, a move he claims was orchestrated to give the BJP an electoral advantage. Similarly, Gupta, who oversaw the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, was appointed chief advisor shortly after his swearing-in. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh echoed these sentiments, asserting that the appointments reveal a lack of impartiality from the Election Commission, which is supposed to act independently of political influence.