Bureaucrats Balbir Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar have been selected as new election commissioners by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led selection committee, said Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Thursday.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is an Opposition member in the panel, however, registered his dissent and questioned the selection process, alleging the short-listed names of officers were not made available to him in advance.
“They (government) have the majority. Earlier, they had given me 212 names, but 10 minutes before the appointment they again gave me just six names. I know that the the Chief Justice of India isn’t there, The government has made such a law that the CJI doesn’t interfere and the central government can choose a favourable name. I am not saying that it’s arbitrary but the procedure that is being followed has some lacunae,” the Congress leaders told at a press conference after the meeting of the selection committee.
Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey had retired in February this year. At the same time, last week another Election Commissioner Arun Goyal had resigned from the post. Both the posts of Election Commissioners are vacant in this three-member commission.
If sources are to be believed, Goyal had differences with the Chief Election Commissioner on some issues. It is a different matter that usually there are so many differences between senior officers, but on March 6 and 7, the atmosphere in the Commission was felt to be a little different.
Once the appointments are notified, these will be the first appointments to be made under the new law. The law also gives the three-member selection committee the power to appoint a person who has not been shortlisted by the search committee.
Before the recent enactment of the new law on appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners, the Election Commissioners were appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Government and as per tradition, the most senior was appointed as the Chief Election Commissioner.
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