An Uttar Pradesh encounter‑specialist IPS officer, described as “Yogi Adityanath’s favourite cop”, has drawn national attention after being deployed as a police observer in South 24 Parganas and issuing a stern warning to a Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate linked to the party’s national leadership. Ajay Pal Sharma, currently Additional Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) in Prayagraj and known for his “encounter‑style” image in UP, is now in West Bengal under Election Commission‑mandated poll‑duty orders, where he has been seen reading the riot act to supporters of Falta TMC candidate Jehangir Khan, a close aide of TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee.
Sharma, widely portrayed in media and social‑network narratives as a hardened cop cut from the same cloth as Adityanath‑era UP policing, arrived in Falta following complaints that Jehangir Khan’s associates were allegedly threatening local voters. Video footage shows him confronting Khan’s relatives at the candidate’s residence, bluntly telling them that if the intimidation continues, “we will deal with it properly” and warning them not to “cry later.” In the clips, Sharma also points out security‑related discrepancies, including a higher‑than‑sanctioned deployment of police personnel at Khan’s residence, and has issued a notice to the district police seeking an explanation.
The move has triggered a sharp political row, with the TMC accusing Sharma of partisanship and branding him a “Yogi Adityanath import” whose conduct does not fit the neutrality expected of Election Commission observers. The BJP, in contrast, has hailed the officer’s actions, with figures such as IT‑cell chief Amit Malviya praising the “setting of tone” in a constituency seen as part of the larger Bengal‑power struggle. The episode underlines how the current assembly polls in West Bengal are being watched through the lens of law‑and‑order optics, federal policing, and imagery shaped by UP‑style “encounter specialists” now operating in a politically sensitive eastern‑Indian state.
