The two vacancies in the Election Commission (EC), created by the surprise resignation of Arun Goel and the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey, are likely to be filled by March 15, sources indicated on March 10.
A high-level selection committee, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and comprising a Union Minister and Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, is likely to meet on March 14.
Earlier, the selection committee was scheduled to meet on March 15 to fill the vacancy of Mr. Pandey, who retired on February 14. However, after the sudden resignation of Mr. Goel, the EC is left with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar as the sole member.
Keen to fill up the vacancies at the earliest, sources told The Hindu that the Opposition leader has been sounded out about a change of date to advance the meeting date by a day or two.
“Election Commission or Election OMISSION? India now has only ONE Election Commissioner, even as Lok Sabha elections are to be announced in few days. Why? As I have said earlier, if we do NOT stop the systematic decimation of our independent institutions, our DEMOCRACY shall be usurped by DICTATORSHIP!” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had asked in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday.
With the announcement of 2024 Lok Sabha elections expected to be made any day after March 13, the government is keen to speed up the appointment process in the next few days.
Explained | On selecting Election Commissioners
Shortlist of names
Before the selection panel finalises the names of the Commissioners, a search committee under Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal will prepare a shortlist of five names for each post. The search committee includes the Union Home Secretary and the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) Secretary. The Election Commissioners will be appointed by the President.
Both the ECs would be appointed under a new law that was passed by Parliament during the winter session of Parliament last December. Opposition parties had opposed the Bill on the ground that the poll panel could lose its autonomous character.
“Since the new process of selecting the Election Commissioners has now effectively given all the powers to the ruling party and the PM, why has the new Election Commissioner not been appointed even after 23 [days] of the completion of latter’s tenure? Modi Govt must answer these questions and come out with a reasonable explanation,” Mr. Kharge had said in his post on Saturday.
