The opposition has been attacking Bengal government over COVID-19 data.
In a sudden move, the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal has transferred the key principal health secretary to the environment department as the state fights against coronavirus.
Health Secretary Vivek Kumar's replacement is yet to be announced but topping the list of likely candidates is Narayan Nigam, the transport secretary. A formal announcement is expected shortly.
Mr Kumar was appointed as the principal secretary of the health department in December.
The reason for his sudden transfer is still not clear, however, sources say that he found himself embroiled in controversies over data about COVID-19.
On April 30, Mr Kumar wrote to the Union Health Secretary and said that the total coronavirus cases reported in Bengal were 931. The letter was sent on a day when the state health department had put the figure at 744.
As the letter became public and the BJP IT cell started tweeting about it, accusing the Mamata Banerjeee government of allegedly fudging the data, the state sent out a Whatsapp message that said his figures were incorrect.
"The enclosure to the letter written by the State Health Secretary to the Union Health Secretary mentions some numbers of cases that need correction. Correct enclosure follows: the incorrect one may be ignored," the message read.
No corrected figure was shared by the information dept.
In the weekend that followed, the Bengal Chief Secretary did not hold the routine press conferences.
On May 4, state health department issued COVID-19 data in a completely different format, which was very detailed. While the new format was a huge improvement of sorts, the exercise got off to a controversial start.
A fact sheet that went into circulation clubbed the coronavirus deaths and comorbidity deaths and put the total figure at 133. This was a significant admission by the government that comorbidity deaths should also be counted as deaths due to the highly contagious illness.
This was something that the Bengal government had been avoiding, sticking instead with the findings of its controversial death audit committee which was segregating the deaths in different categories.
At that time, the official figure was 61 COVID-19 deaths. The 72 comorbidity deaths were not added to.the state's tally.
That prompted the opposition and a section of doctors to attack the Bengal Government for allegedly using the death audit committee to fudge and suppress figures.
Within minutes of the fact sheet becoming public, it disappeared and the health department issued another fact sheet that put COVID-19 deaths and comorbidity deaths into separate columns.
These two incidents prompted the opposition to attack the Trinamool Congress government. They also indicated fault-lines between the health secretary and other sections.of the government.
While the controversies over data involving Mr Kumar were all in the public domain, sources say he had differences with the chief secretary over several issues and around mid-April, he had even offered to resign.
Narayan Nigam, who is the transport secretary at the moment, is the current front-runner for the post that has been vacated.