In a surprise move, Election Commissioner Arun Goel resigned from his post on Saturday, just days before the expected announcement of the schedule for Lok Sabah polls. His tenure was till December 27.
The Union Law Ministry said in a notification that the President had accepted Goel’s resignation. It was not immediately known why he resigned.
A former bureaucrat and a 1985-batch IAS officer, Goel joined the Election Commission in November 2022. He would have become the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) after incumbent Rajiv Kumar retired in February next year.
The poll panel already had a vacancy after the retirement of Anup Pandey in February. Now, with Goel’s resignation, the three-member EC panel has only CEC Rajiv Kumar.
As per the new law, a search committee headed by the law minister and comprising two union secretaries will shortlist five names for the appointment of CEC or ECs.
Then a selection committee—headed by the prime minister and comprising a Union Cabinet Minister to be nominated by the PM and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha or the leader of the single-largest opposition party in the House—picks one name.
The CEC or EC then gets appointed by the President. Earlier, the Election Commission had only a CEC. The concept of a multi-member EC has been in operation since 1993.
