Lok Sabha elections 2024: Gyanesh Kumar, SS Sandhu named as new Election Commissioners, says Adhir Chowdhury

Retired IAS officers Gyanesh Kumar and SS Sandhu were appointed as new Election Commissioners on Thursday by a panel chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,  Congress party's leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said. 

Speaking about the appointment, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who was present at the meeting, said, "In this committee, govt has the majority....One Mr Kumar from Kerala and one Mr B. Sandhu from Punjab have been selected as Election Commissioners."

Chowdhury also said six names came up before the panel for the selection of the two ECs.

He, however, said the Chief Justice of India should have been part of the selection panel and there was no clarity on how six names were shortlisted from over 200 candidates that are said to have come before the search committee headed by the Law Minister.

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The selection panel was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and it was attended by Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and other Union members. However, the election commissioners was appointed by the president.

The six names shortlisted were that of Utpal Kumar Singh, Pradeep Kumar Tripathi, Gyanesh Kumar, Indevar Pandey, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, Sudhir Kumar Gangadhar Rahate, all former bureaucrats.

On Sunday, sources close to the Election Commission revealed that two election commissioners are likely to be appointed by March 15 to fill the vacancies created by the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey and the surprise resignation of Arun Goel.

They had revealed that an amended communication was sent to all panel members for the meeting ahead of the meeting.  The meeting was earlier slated at 6 PM on March 15.

Days before the poll panel is expected to announce the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls, Goel resigned last week. His resignation was accepted by President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday and the Union Law Ministry issued a notification to announce it. Following the move, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar became the sole member of the poll body.

Earlier, another EC Ashok Lavasa had resigned as election commissioner in August 2020. He had given dissent notes on various model code of conduct violation decisions taken by the Election Commission during the last Lok Sabha polls.

(With inputs from agencies)