Following the Bharatiya Janata Party’s sweeping victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections, a section of teaching and non-teaching staff whose appointments were cancelled by a Supreme Court of India ruling in 2025 said on Tuesday that they were hopeful the new government will take steps to reinstate eligible candidates.
Many of those affected said their voting decisions were influenced by the uncertainty surrounding their careers, expressing optimism that the new administration would address their long-standing demand for fair and transparent recruitment. In April 2025, the Supreme Court had scrapped the appointments of more than 25,000 staff recruited through the West Bengal School Service Commission, citing widespread irregularities in the 2016 hiring process during the tenure of the Trinamool Congress government.
Mrinmoy Mondal, spokesperson for the West Bengal Untainted Teachers Association, said many deserving candidates were now facing an uncertain future due to what he described as large-scale corruption and nepotism in the earlier recruitment process. He added that affected teachers were now looking to the new government for legally sound measures to reinstate those found to be ‘untainted’ or not involved in any wrongdoing.
Echoing similar concerns, Mehboob Mondal of the Eligible Teachers Forum said that while many candidates are hoping for a breakthrough, uncertainty continues to loom over their future. He was among those who had staged prolonged protests outside the SSC headquarters last year, demanding justice and reinstatement.
Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari had earlier visited the protest site to express support for the agitating candidates. Abhishek Sen, a waiting-list candidate from the 2016 recruitment cycle, recalled a prolonged sit-in near the Mahatma Gandhi statue in central Kolkata that lasted nearly 1,300 days. He said many qualified candidates remained overlooked despite their eligibility and voted with hopes of change.
Also read: Rally in Vijayawada celebrates BJP victory
Another aspirant, Sushanta Ghosh, who has been campaigning for upper primary recruitment, questioned the system’s track record, pointing out that SSC examinations had been conducted only twice in the past 15 years and that several recruitment processes, including one initiated in 2016, remain incomplete.
Achintya Samanta, who qualified the 2014 Primary TET, recalled instances of alleged police action during protests, including a controversial incident involving a candidate named Arunima Pal. He said such experiences influenced many voters in the recent election.
Sajal Dutta, one of the teachers who lost his job after the court order, expressed cautious optimism about the future. He noted that although the earlier government under Mamata Banerjee initiated a fresh recruitment process with written tests and interviews, its completion—expected by August—now depends on how the new administration proceeds.
Sarbari Mukherjee, another affected teacher, said she hopes the government will recognize their concerns, emphasizing that many of them are not politically affiliated. The Supreme Court, in its judgment, had observed that the recruitment process was severely compromised by corruption, including tampering with OMR sheets and appointments beyond sanctioned vacancies.
The verdict sparked widespread protests across the state, with candidates holding demonstrations at prominent locations in Kolkata, demanding reinstatement of genuine candidates and a transparent hiring process. The issue has since become a major political flashpoint, with opposition parties accusing the previous government of institutional corruption, while the former ruling dispensation maintained that corrective measures had already been initiated to ensure fairness in future recruitments.
Follow us
