On March 15, a high-level committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet to choose the candidates for new election commissioners.
According to the sources, a high-level committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to convene on March 15 to decide on the selection of new poll commissioners, as reported by news agency PTI. Two positions became available for election commissioners after Anup Chandra Pandey retired and Arun Goel resigned. The important panel will be presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will feature a Union minister as well as Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Leader of the Opposition for the Congress in the Lok Sabha. To choose the names of the new election commissioners, it will meet on March 15. The election commissioners will be chosen by President Droupadi Murmu.
The sources claim that by March 15, two new election commissioners would be appointed to fill the void caused by Goel’s unexpected resignation and Pandey’s retirement.
They said that although Goel’s resignation was announced in the evening, the meeting notice was sent on Saturday afternoon. The sources claim that rather than one appointment as initially scheduled, the two election commissioners are expected to be named during the meeting, PTI said. The sources state that the March 15 notice relates to the committee’s rescheduled meeting, which was originally set for March 7 to fill the gap left by Pandey’s 65-year-old retirement on February 14.
Days before the election panel was scheduled to announce the calendar for the Lok Sabha, Goel tendered his resignation on Friday morning. The Union Law Ministry announced President Droupadi Murmu’s resignation in a statement on Saturday. The only remaining member of the election panel is Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar.
How Two New Election Commissioners Will Be Appointed
A search committee chaired by Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and consisting of the Home Secretary and the Department of Personnel and Training Secretary would initially create two separate panels of five names for the two positions. Later, the prime minister’s selection committee will pick two candidates to be appointed as election commissioners. According to sources, the selection committee might convene on March 13 or 14, depending on the members’ schedules, and selections would most likely be made by March 15.
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