Sukhbir Singh Sandhu from Punjab and Gyanesh Kumar from Kerala have been appointed as the new Election Commissioners by a panel chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who was part of the committee, on March 14.
Chowdhury, the only opposition member in the panel, addressed reporters after the meeting. He said that six names were considered for the selection of the two election commissioners. The final decision saw Sukhbir Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar chosen by a majority of panel members. Chowdhury expressed his dissent, raising concerns about the process and said that the six short-listed candidates were not disclosed to him in advance.
He also pointed out the absence of the Chief Justice of India from the selection panel and questioned the methodology behind shortlisting six names from a pool of over 200 candidates submitted to the search committee headed by the Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal.
The committee convened to fill the vacancies left by the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey in February and the resignation of Arun Goel as the Election Commissioner on March 9. Two days after Arun Goel’s resignation, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court to restrain the Union government from using its newly-vested powers to appoint additional election officers ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. In December 2023, the Parliament passed a new law removing the Chief Justice of India from the panel to select the chief election commissioner and election commissioners.