A Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led selection panel will meet on March 15 to fill vacancies for two central Election Commissioners that arose after sudden resignation of member Arun Goel on Sunday and retirement of Anup Chand Pandey on February 14, this year. The three-member Election Commission of India (ECI) is now left with only Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar.
Also read: Election Commissioner Arun Goel resigns, leaves ECI with Chief Rajiv Kumar
The government moved swiftly to hold a meeting of the Election Commission members selection committee, which post comprises PM Narendra Modi, a Union Minister and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, as the ECI was supposed to announce 2024 Lok Sabha election schedule around mid this month. Now, the announcement will be slightly delayed since ideally the government would want the Commission to have full strength of three members to preside over the general poll process to avoid any controversy, said people aware of functioning.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary has been apprised of the meeting by the government to select new Election Commissioners on March 15, sources close to the West Bengal leader said. He is likely to attend the meeting in Delhi on March 15 and the government wishes to give nod to the names of new Election Commissioners the same day. A EC member holds office for six years, or till they turn 65 years of age, whichever is earlier.
Before that, a search committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary will suggest five names each for the post of two Election Commissioners on the basis of laid down rules. This list would be placed before the PM-lead panel to finalise two names who would eventually be appointed by President Droupadi Murmu as Election Commissioners.
As per the amended Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, the Selection Committee may consider any person other than those suggested by the Search Committee. The profile of Selection Committee members have been changed to bring a union minister instead of Chief Justice of India which lead Opposition to charge that appointments will no longer be free and fair in the ECI. The rest two -- the PM and the LoP -- remain the same as they were in the previous Act.
Punjab Cadre 1985-batch IAS officer Goel had taken voluntary retirement to join as the Election Commissioner in November of 2022. His resignation was accepted by President Droupadi Murmu. “In pursuance of clause (1) of Section 11 of The Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, the President is pleased to accept the resignation tendered by Arun Goel, Election Commissioner with effect from the 9th March, 2024,” read the gazette notification issued by Union Law Ministry.
Also read: Uncertainty looms over next GST Council meet as poll dates can be announced anytime
Though it’s not clear what lead to his resignation, buzz is that he had differences with CEC over the election issues. Ahead of putting in his papers, he had travelled to West Bengal to oversee poll preparations but did not attend press conference along with Rajiv Kumar. The Commission had said that he was not keeping well.
As per earlier schedule, a team of ECI is also likely to travel to Jammu and Kashmir for two days from Monday to interact with the UT polls officials over election preparedness.