NEW DELHI: Days before the announcement of 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Election Commissioner Arun Goel on Saturday resigned from his post, leaving Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar as the only member in the three-member poll panel at this crucial juncture. President Droupadi Murmu has accepted Goel’s resignation.
“In pursuance of Clause (1) of Section 11 of The Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, the President is pleased to accept the resignation tendered by Shri Arun Goel, Election Commissioner with effect from 9th March, 2024,” a gazette notification in this regard read. Goel resignation came less than a month after Anup Chandra Pandey, the other Election Commissioner, retired on February 14. Goel had taken charge as Election Commissioner on November 21, 2022. A 1985 batch IAS officer, he had previously served as the Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industry, Government of India.
The Tribune on March 9 reported how the poll panel was functioning with only two members, even as the schedule for Lok Sabha elections was likely to be announced in the next few days.
It remains to be seen if the government is fills vacancies in the Election Commission under The Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appoitment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act 2023 which provides for a search committee chaired by union law minister and comprising two members not below the rank of union secretary to draw up a five member panel of potential ECs for the selection committee to make the final appointments.
The selection committee under the new law is chaired by the PM and comprises leader of opposition and a union minister to be named by the PM.
Opposition Congress and TMC called the resignation of Goel extremely concerning, with TMC’s Saket Gokhale saying “Modi Government has introduced a new law where Election Commissioners will now be appointed with a majority vote of PM Modi and 1 Minister chosen by him. Ergo, before 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Modi will now appoint 2 out of the 3 Election Commissioners after today’s resignation. This is very very concerning.”
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said the development was “deeply concerning for the health of the world’s largest democracy that Election Commissioner Arun Goel has resigned on the cusp of Lok Sabha elections.”
“There is absolutely no transparency in how a constitutional institution like the ECI has been functioning and the manner in which the government pressurises them. During the 2019 elections, Ashok Lavasa had dissented against a clean chit to the PM for violating the Model Code of Conduct. Later, he faced relentless inquiries. This attitude shows the regime is hellbent on destroying democratic traditions. This must be explained, and the ECI must be completely non-partisan at all times,” Venugopal said.
Goel’s appointment in 2022 was mired in controversy after it was challenged in the Supreme Court by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). Last year in August, the Supreme Court had dismissed the petition, saying that a Constitution Bench of the court had already dealt with the issue in its March 2, 2023, verdict.