Following objections from the Trinamool Congress and CPI, the Election Commission of India on Thursday removed retired BSF DG K K Sharma from the job of Special Central Police Observer and replaced him with Vivek Dubey, ADGP, Andhra Pradesh Police.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee criticised the appointment of Sharma as SCPO for West Bengal and Jharkhand, questioning his neutrality since he had attended an event organised by an outfit that is said to have got connections with the RSS. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) also wrote to the ECI seeking Sharma’s removal on the same ground.

The event in question was organised by ‘Seemanta Chetana Manch’, an NGO, in Kolkata in February last year. On Wednesday, while releasing her party’s manifesto, Mamata Banerjee displayed a photograph and pointed out that Sharma, seen in uniform in the photograph, had attended the event and that RSS member Rantidev Sengupta, who is now contesting the Lok Sabha elections from the Howrah constituency on a BJP ticket, was also present there.

The poll panel had appointed Sharma, a 1982-batch IPS officer, as SCPO for West Bengal and Jharkhand to oversee the deployment and other security related issues in these two states.In its letter to the ECI, the CPI(M) had alleged that the move was “patently questionable and would raise the question of political partisanship”.

‘Seemanta Chetana Manch’ describes “promoting patriotism & nationalism among the people of our country in general and the international border areas in particular” as its motto.