Who will replace V S Sampath?
7 Jun 2012 12:46 AM GMT
After facing serious criticism from its own ally DMK and the opposition parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the central government has reconciled with the selection of V S Sampath as the next chief election commissioner. The current chief S Y Quraishi retires on 12 July.
The DMK, the BJP and the CPI(M) had made a hue and cry about the post, alleging non-transparency in the selection process of the chief election commissioner, as the Congress leadership was not comfortable with the choice of Sampath or H S Brahma, the other two election commissioners. Both of them are IAS officers from the Andhra cadre, they had got prominence in power circles in Delhi and their current posts at the Election Commission at the insistence of Y S R Reddy. But now that the YSR's son Jaganmohan Reddy has fallen out with the Congress, the party had wanted to keep Sampath and Brahma out of such an important institution.
The Congress was toying with the idea of appointing M N Prasad, a former senior official in the Prime Minister's Office, as the poll panel head. On Wednesday, the union law minister Salman Khurshid had an hour-long meeting with Sampath, as the law ministry is the interface between the Election Commission and the government.
But, the question now is who fills the gap in the Election Commission after Sampath's elevation. Intense lobbying is already on, with a section of the Congress pushing the names of Shamsher Sharif, who had earlier worked for Vice President Hamid Ansari and the chief secretary of the Delhi government B K Tripathi.
Tripathi enjoys the confidence of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. But, Sharif's name is facing serious resistance from within the Congress as these names also run the risk of facing opposition from other parties and thereby may embarrass the government.
What remains to be seen is whether efficiency or loyalty will be considered when the new election commissioner is chosen.
The DMK, the BJP and the CPI(M) had made a hue and cry about the post, alleging non-transparency in the selection process of the chief election commissioner, as the Congress leadership was not comfortable with the choice of Sampath or H S Brahma, the other two election commissioners. Both of them are IAS officers from the Andhra cadre, they had got prominence in power circles in Delhi and their current posts at the Election Commission at the insistence of Y S R Reddy. But now that the YSR's son Jaganmohan Reddy has fallen out with the Congress, the party had wanted to keep Sampath and Brahma out of such an important institution.
The Congress was toying with the idea of appointing M N Prasad, a former senior official in the Prime Minister's Office, as the poll panel head. On Wednesday, the union law minister Salman Khurshid had an hour-long meeting with Sampath, as the law ministry is the interface between the Election Commission and the government.
But, the question now is who fills the gap in the Election Commission after Sampath's elevation. Intense lobbying is already on, with a section of the Congress pushing the names of Shamsher Sharif, who had earlier worked for Vice President Hamid Ansari and the chief secretary of the Delhi government B K Tripathi.
Tripathi enjoys the confidence of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. But, Sharif's name is facing serious resistance from within the Congress as these names also run the risk of facing opposition from other parties and thereby may embarrass the government.
What remains to be seen is whether efficiency or loyalty will be considered when the new election commissioner is chosen.
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