The chairmen of two key West Bengal education bodies — the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) and the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) — resigned on Tuesday, a day after the newly formed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state ordered the termination of nominees heading various boards and autonomous bodies. The resignations signal an early and sweeping administrative reset under West Bengal's first BJP Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari.

Who Resigned and Why

Siddhartha Majumdar, chairman of the WBSSC — an autonomous body under the State Education Department — submitted his resignation on Tuesday. Majumdar was appointed to the post in 2022 by the then Mamata Banerjee-led cabinet. Though he was due to retire in January this year, the previous cabinet granted him an extension. He served in the role for nearly four years and four months.

Simultaneously, Ramanuj Gangopadhyay, the current president of the WBBSE, also tendered his resignation on the same day. The WBBSE's former president, Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay, had previously spent several days in jail in connection with the school job scandal. Both resignations have been received by the office of the State Education Secretary, according to a departmental insider.

The School Job Scandal Backdrop

Both the WBSSC and the WBBSE have been deeply implicated in a multi-crore cash-for-school-jobs scandal that emerged during the previous Trinamool Congress (TMC) government. The then State Education Minister, Partha Chatterjee — also the former TMC secretary general — was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in July 2022 and spent over three years behind bars before being granted bail. The TMC denied him re-nomination in the recent elections.

Beyond Chatterjee, heads of several boards and autonomous bodies attached to the State Education Department were arrested by either the ED or the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), with both central agencies running parallel probes. The education department recorded the highest number of corruption cases during the TMC's tenure, according to reports.

The New Government's Trigger Order

The resignations came just one day after the new BJP-led state government issued a formal order terminating the tenures of nominated directors, members, and chairpersons of various boards, organisations, non-statutory bodies, and public sector undertakings under different state government departments. The sweeping directive effectively set the stage for both officials to step down.