NEW DELHI: Bureaucrats
Sukhbir Sandhu
and
Gyanesh Kumar
have been appointed
election commissioners
by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led panel, Congress leader
Adhir Ranjan
Chowdhury said on Thursday.
Chowdhury addressed reporters at his residence following the conclusion of the meeting, stating that six names were considered by the panel for the selection of the two election commissioners.
The six shortlisted names were Utpal Kumar Singh, Pradeep Kumar Tripathi, Gyanesh Kumar, Indevar Pandey, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, and Sudhir Kumar Gangadhar Rahate, all former bureaucrats.
Sandhu and Kumar’s names were ultimately chosen by a majority of the high-powered panel members. However, Chowdhury raised concerns about the absence of the Chief Justice of India from the selection panel and the lack of clarity regarding how six names were shortlisted from a pool of over 200 candidates presented to the search committee.
After the meeting of selection committee to pick the election commissioner, Chowdhury told reporters, “In this committee, govt has the majority. One Mr Kumar from Kerala and one Mr B. Sandhu from Punjab have been selected as Election Commissioners.”
Sandhu is from Punjab and is a former IAS officer of the 1988 batch from Uttarakhand cadre. Sandhu was appointed as the chief secretary of Uttarakhand when Pushkar Singh Dhami became the CM in 2021. He has also served as the chairperson of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
Meanwhile, Kumar has served as secretary in the ministry of parliamentary affairs. He belongs to the 1988-batch from Kerala cadre. During his tenure in the home ministry, Kumar oversaw the abrogation of Article 370.
After the resignation of Arun Goel, only chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar was left in the 3-member poll panel, with the Lok Sabha polls just weeks away. Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey had retired on February 14 on attaining the age of 65 years.
The new law on the appointment of CEC and ECs came into force recently. Before this, the CJI was also involved in the process.
