Voters at a polling booth in West Bengal's Dakshin Dinajpur district on Thursday. Partha PaulAmid the tense West Bengal Assembly elections, the TMC created a fresh row on Wednesday after it accused a Police Observer of holding a “private, unscheduled, unrecorded, and entirely unofficial meeting” with BJP candidate from Magrahat Paschim (South 24 Parganas district) Gour Sundar Ghosh and other BJP leaders.The TMC lodged a complaint with the EC, alleging that “police Observer for Diamond Harbour, Parmar Smit Parshottamdas, has been caught red-handed”.The party said that “despite being provided official accommodation at the IPS Mess in Alipore, Parshottamdas disregarded protocol and chose instead to stay at Room 208 of Sagarika Hotel in Diamond Harbour”. The party also shared purported videos of Parshottamdas entering the hotel premises and meeting a group of BJP leaders in the hotel. The alleged meeting happened on April 20.Who are Police Observers in elections and how are they appointed? A Police Observer is an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer who monitors a range of activities an an assigned constituency during election time. Their tasks relate to security deployment, the law and order situation, and coordinating between the civil and police administration to ensure a free and fair election. The Election Commission appoints police observers. They cannot be from the state police force where they are being appointed.How do Police Observers function? According to the handbook for police officers published by the EC in 2023, the State Police Nodal Officer (SPNO) — appointed by the ECI — works in coordination with the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and prepares a Force Deployment Plan, which is approved by a committee consisting of Chief Electoral Officer, State Police Nodal Officer and State CAPF Nodal Officer which is finally vetted or modified by the General Observers including Police Observers. The SPNO also works in “regular and close coordination with police observers” for finalising and implementing the Force Deployment Plan.The District Deployment Plan is prepared by DEO (District Election Officer) and SP (Superintendent of Police) jointly for the district and shall be vetted by senior most General and Police Observers jointly.Story continues below this adAlso Read | Why Mamata is facing battle of her life: SIR deletions to agencies’ heat, ‘anti-incumbency’The Police Observers have a role in zeroing in on “critical polling stations”, which are identified by the DEO/RO in consultation with the SP/DSP as per EC criteria and is approved by the senior-most General and Police Observers.Police Observers also work in coordination with CAPF (Central Armed Police Forces) staff, which keeps an eye on the activities inside the polling station and reports to the officer in-charge of the CAPF or the Presiding Officer, Micro Observer, Sector Officer, General/Police Observers etc., if anything unusual is observed.What has the TMC alleged?There is no outright bar on Police Observers meeting a candidate. The TMC, however, has alleged in its complaint that the Police Observer “was holding secret meetings”. According to the party, the meeting was “outside all official channels, in violation of every procedure and instruction the Election Commission itself has laid down”.Story continues below this ad“The BJP-ECI nexus is not a theory. It has now been documented, dated, and located. Room 208, Sagarika Hotel, Diamond Harbour, 20th April 2026,” said the party, in a statement on Thursday.How has the BJP reacted? The West Bengal unit of the BJP rejected the allegations and said that the meeting was done “officially” and that the meeting was regarding allegations on TMC workers creating hindrances in the BJP’s campaign in the state. ECI sources said that the meeting was conducted at a “designated official place” for meetings.“All the meetings are being done at the conference hall of that hotel. The said officer is not staying at that hotel, but can hold meetings there as it is a designated place for meetings as per orders of the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO). There was nothing secret in that meeting,” said the EC source, posted in West Bengal.Asad Rehman is with the national bureau of The Indian Express and covers politics and policy focusing on religious minorities in India. A journalist for over eight years, Rehman moved to this role after covering Uttar Pradesh for five years for The Indian Express. During his time in Uttar Pradesh, he covered politics, crime, health, and human rights among other issues. He did extensive ground reports and covered the protests against the new citizenship law during which many were killed in the state. During the Covid pandemic, he did extensive ground reporting on the migration of workers from the metropolitan cities to villages in Uttar Pradesh. He has also covered some landmark litigations, including the Babri Masjid-Ram temple case and the ongoing Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute. Prior to that, he worked on The Indian Express national desk for three years where he was a copy editor. Rehman studied at La Martiniere, Lucknow and then went on to do a bachelor's degree in History from Ramjas College, Delhi University. He also has a Masters degree from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia. ... Read More © The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Explained PoliticsExpress Explained