IAS Saumitra Mohan appointed Secretary to Bengal Governor

MP, May 6, 2026, Kolkata: A day after the conclusion of the electoral process, the first major bureaucratic reshuffle has taken place in West Bengal.

Following the declaration of the results of the 2026 Assembly polls, IAS officer Saumitra Mohan has been appointed as the new Secretary to Governor R. N. Ravi.

A 2002-batch IAS officer, Mohan had been serving as Secretary of the state Transport Department for over three years. Despite multiple administrative reshuffles ahead of the elections, he was not moved from his post. However, soon after the electoral process concluded, he has now been reassigned to Lok Bhavan as the Governor’s Secretary.

R. N. Ravi took oath as the Governor at Lok Bhavan in Kolkata on March 12. Sources indicate that within a week of assuming office, he had requested the state government to appoint a Secretary.

Earlier, during the tenure of former Governor C. V. Ananda Bose, IAS officer Nandini Chakraborty was appointed as Secretary to the Governor. However, she was removed from the post within a short span. At the time, sources suggested that she had been labelled as being close to the ruling party, which led to her removal. She later went on to serve as the state Home Secretary and subsequently as the Chief Secretary.

Notably, since February 2023, when C. V. Ananda Bose removed Nandini Chakraborty from the post of Principal Secretary, no IAS officer had been appointed to the position. After nearly three years, an IAS officer has once again been appointed as Secretary to the Governor.

Significantly, the development comes a day after a major political shift in the state, with the BJP coming to power in West Bengal, displacing the Trinamool Congress.