Gyanesh Kumar, Sukhbir Sandhu appointed as election commissioners: Govt notification

The government on Thursday notified the appointment of ex-bureaucrats Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu as election commissioners, hours after prime minister Narendra Modi-led high-powered committee sat down to fill the two vacancies in the Election Commission of India (ECI), which, prior to the new appointments, only had Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar.

“The President is pleased to appoint Shri Gyanesh Kumar, IAS (Retd.) and Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, IAS (Retd.) as Election Commissioners in the Election Commission of India with effect from the date they assume charge of their office,” the Ministry of Law and Justice said in a notification, a screenshot of which was shared by news agency PTI.

The appointments were necessitated due to the sudden resignation of Arun Goel from the ECI; Goel stepped down on March 9. At the time of his resignation, there was already a vacancy on the three-member panel in the form of Anup Chandra Pandey, whose term ended in February.

Goel’s resignation came at a time when the poll body was gearing up to announce the schedule of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The filling up of the two vacancies, therefore, paves the way for the ECI to declare the schedule.

The PM Modi-led committee also comprised Union home minister Amit Shah and Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Though Chowdhury attended the meeting, he registered dissent on account of the government already having a majority in the panel.

It was Chowdhury who, coming out of the meeting, declared that Kumar and Sandhu had been picked.