EC Arun Goel resigns ahead of LS elections
New Delhi: In a sudden move just weeks ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, Election Commissioner Arun Goel has tendered his resignation, leaving the three-member body with only the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).
Goel’s resignation was accepted by President Droupadi Murmu with effect from March 9, 2024, according to a gazette notification here on Saturday. The reason behind his abrupt resignation was not immediately known.
Election Commissioner Goel had been visiting several states to oversee and review the arrangements and preparations for the coming Lok Sabha polls as the poll body was expected to announce the schedule for the general elections over the next few days. On Friday, the Election Commission held meetings with Union Home Ministry and senior Railway officials to work out the deployment and movement of security personnel for election duties across the country.
The poll body was already working under depleted strength and there was already a vacancy after Election Commissioner Anup Pandey’s term got over last month.
Arun Goel took over as the Election Commissioner on November 21, 2022. A 1985 batch IAS officer, he previously served as the Secretary in the Heavy Industry Ministry and as Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser in the Ministry of Labour.
He took voluntary retirement ahead of his appointment as election commissioner in 2022. He was in line to become the next Chief Election Commissioner after Rajiv Kumar’s tenure ends in February 2025. According to the law, the election commissioner or CEC post can be held for up to six years or till attaining the age of 65 years. His term would have continued till early December 2027.
His appointment came under challenge before the Supreme Court in 2022. In March 2023, the five-judge Constitution bench of the apex court observed that not only Arun Goel was appointed in a hasty fashion by the government.
The Constitution bench had ruled that election commissioners and the CEC will henceforth be selected by a panel comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India, till Parliament passes a law on the appointments.
Later, Parliament cleared the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023, replacing CJI with a Cabinet Minister as one of the three members of the selection panel to choose the CEC and election commissioners -- the other two being the PM and the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha.
The government will have to quickly start the process of appointing other election commissioners as the three-member body will need to be fully geared up to conduct the massive exercise of Lok Sabha elections, expected to be held in April-May.
Congress leader and general secretary of the party K C Venugopal called the resignation deeply concerning and alleged that “there is absolutely no transparency” in how the Election Commission has been functioning.
Reacting to the shocking and unprecedented move of Election Commissioner Goel’s resignation, Trinamool Congress leader Saket Gokhale expressed concern over the development and noted that the post of the other EC is vacant. “That leaves the Election Commission now with just 1 Chief Election Commissioner. Modi government has introduced a new law where Election Commissioners will now be appointed with as majority vote of PM Modi and 1 Minister chosen by him,’’ he said in a post on X.
The TMC leader said before 2024 Lok Sabha polls, PM Modi will now appoint 2 out of the 3 Election Commissioners after today’s resignation. “This is very very concerning,” he said.
