What happened
On April 27, the Election Commission appointed Ajay Pal Sharma — a 2011-batch UP-cadre IPS officer who proudly cites his 'thok do' attitude — as Police Observer for South 24 Parganas, the district that contains Diamond Harbour, Abhishek Banerjee's Lok Sabha seat. In January 2020, Sharma had been transferred out of Rampur after a damning report named him and five other IPS officers in a cash-for-postings scandal; the BJP government's own SIT recommended a probe, and he was booked for criminal breach of trust, causing the disappearance of evidence, and criminal conspiracy. There is also an FIR by a 30-year-old woman alleging he married her while concealing other relationships, then framed her when she complained to the DGP. Within hours of his Bengal posting, a video surfaced of him 'reading the riot act' to a TMC candidate's family in Falta. The EC's commitment to neutral observation has rarely been this on-brand.