KOLKATA, March 19 -- West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI) over a sweeping administrative purge, asserting that the large-scale transfer of top civil servants was a calculated attempt to cripple the administrative machinery.

"The manner in which the ECI has singled out and targeted Bengal is not just unprecedented - it is deeply alarming. Even before the formal notification of elections, more than 50 senior officials, including the chief secretary, home secretary, DGP, ADGs, IGs, DIGs, district magistrates and superintendents of police, have been summarily and arbitrarily removed. This is not administrative action rather this is political interference o...