Retd IAS officers Sukhbir Sandhu, Gyanesh Kumar new ECs; Opposition questions selection method
Retd IAS officers Sukhbir Sandhu, Gyanesh Kumar new ECs; Opposition questions selection method
New Delhi: Retired bureaucrats Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Sandhu were appointed Election Commissioners here on Thursday. The two were picked by a three-member selection committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a meeting. The Law Ministry later issued a notification announcing the appointments.
SC to hear plea challenging CJI’s exclusion from panel to select CEC, ECs today
The panel, which also consists of Leader of the Opposition Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, selected the two officials from six shortlisted names.
“In this committee, government has the majority. Kumar from Kerala and Sandhu from Punjab have been selected as Election Commissioners,” Chowdhury was quoted by agencies as saying. He said he had given a dissent note, questioning the procedure of selection.
Both Sandhu and Kumar are retired IAS officers of the 1988 batch. While Sandhu was from Uttarakhand cadre, Kumar belonged to Kerala cadre. Sandhu has held key government positions, including that of the Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand and chairman of the NHAI.
Kumar has served as Secretary in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Amit Shah-led Ministry of Cooperation. He played a key role in setting up the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust when he was in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
Got 6 names 10 mins before meeting
They gave me a list of all 212 aspirants last night. Is it humanly possible to examine 212 names? Ten minutes before meeting, I got shortlist of six names. It was fait accompli. — Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, LoP
He also headed the J&K desk at the MHA in 2019 when Article 370 was made ineffective. He had retired as Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation, under the ministership of Shah. The selection comes ahead of the announcement of Lok Sabha elections.
They will assist Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar. The poll panel had been functioning with just Kumar at the helm after Anup Chandra Pandey retired on February 15 and Arun Goel stepped down as Election Commissioner last weekend.
Similar stories
Comments are closed.