New Delhi: The high-powered committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will convene on March 15 to determine on the brand new election commissioners, information company PTI quoted prime sources as saying. The committee, which additionally features a Union minister and the Congress chief within the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, will choose the candidates for the 2 vacant posts of election commissioners.
The vacancies arose after Arun Goel resigned and Anup Chandra Pandey retired from the Election Commission. The president will appoint the election commissioners based mostly on the committee’s advice. The sources mentioned the 2 appointments are anticipated to be made by March 15, because the committee was notified of Goel’s resignation on Saturday night, after it had already despatched the discover for the assembly.
The assembly was initially scheduled for March 7 to fill the put up vacated by Pandey, who retired on February 14 on turning 65. Goel’s sudden resignation on Friday morning, days earlier than the announcement of the Lok Sabha polls, left Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar as the one member of the ballot physique.
His resignation was accepted by President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday and a notification was issued by the Union Law (*15*).
A search committee beneath Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, with the Home secretary and the Department of Personnel and Training secretary as members, will put together two separate lists of 5 names every for the 2 posts. The prime minister-led choice committee will then select two candidates from the lists.
The sources dismissed the hypothesis that Goel resigned resulting from private causes or variations with Kumar, saying there was no proof of any dissent by Goel within the data of the Election Commission.
They mentioned it was pure for skilled bureaucrats to have completely different opinions and views on varied points, however that didn’t quantity to disagreements.
Goel, a 1985-batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre, had joined the Election Commission in November 2022. He would have served till December 5, 2027, and would have succeeded Kumar because the chief election commissioner after his retirement in February subsequent yr.
Ashok Lavasa had give up as election commissioner in August 2020.
