Of all the IPS officers in India, the EC picked the one whose own SIT recommended a probe against him, then dropped him into the Trinamool Congress's home district to read TMC candidates the riot act on free and fair elections.
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.