KOLKATA, May 11 -- West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday appointed the state's chief electoral officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal as the Bengal chief secretary, the state's top post for a civil servant.

Agarwal, a 1990-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the West Bengal cadre, replaces Dushyant Nariala, a 1993-batch IAS officer, who was appointed to the post by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on March 15. Nariala will be Bengal's new resident commissioner in Delhi.

By Monday evening, Agarwal had taken over as chief secretary, the state government's top bureaucrat entrusted with overseeing the administration and coordinating various departments.

Agarwal is the second bureaucrat, who was closely ass...