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Government plans to appoint two EC commissioners by March 15
Even as MahaYuti partners and Maha Vikas Aghadi allies in Maharashtra are yet to finalise the seat-sharing deal for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, they have stepped up their outreach to voters.
New Delhi: Arun Goyal, Election Commissioner, resigned unexpectedly just before the Lok Sabha elections. Anoop Chandra Pandey has already retired on February 14th. Rajiv Kumar, the Chief Electoral Commissioner, is now the sole member of the electoral authority. In such a case, the government will appoint two commissioners before the Lok Sabha elections. According to sources, both of these positions will be filled by March 15. PM Narendra Modi might chair the selection committee.
Two election commissioners are expected to be appointed by March 15 to fill the vacancies left by the retirement of Anoop Chandra Pandey and the abrupt departure of Arun Goyal. This information was provided by sources on Sunday. Goyal resigned from his position as Election Commissioner on Friday morning, two days before the Commission is expected to release the Lok Sabha election timetable.It is worth noting that President Draupadi Murmu accepted his resignation on Saturday and the Law Ministry issued a notification announcing it.
A search committee, led by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, would initially create two separate panels of five names for each position. This committee will consist of the Home Secretary and the Secretary of the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT). Later, a selection committee led by the Prime Minister, which includes a Union minister and Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, will pick two people to serve as Election Commissioners.Following this, the president will pick the election commissioners. According to sources, the selection committee may convene on March 13 or 14, depending on the convenience of the members, with appointments expected by March 15.
On the question related to the reasons behind Goyal's resignation, sources said that he may have resigned due to personal reasons.Sources dismissed allegations about differences of opinion between Goyal and Kumar, saying records of internal contacts and decisions demonstrate that Goyal had no disagreements.Goyal, who quit on Friday morning, had skipped a critical meeting between the Election Commission and key officials from the Home Ministry and Railways to secure the deployment and movement of central forces across India during election duty.
