Election Commissioner Resigns: Election Commission of India Left with Sole Member Ahead of Lok Sabha Polls

Before the Lok Sabha elections, chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar would be the only person in charge of the Election Commission of India following the resignation of Arun Goel.

The President had approved Goel's resignation, according to a gazette notice on Saturday night.

The commission is required to have three members, but as of right now, Kumar is the only one remaining after election commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey retired in February and the government failed to appoint a replacement.

Goel did not answer this newspaper's calls or messages. His resignation's cause has not been made public. During the poll panel's Tuesday visit to Calcutta, he did not attend a news conference. A commission representative stated that this was because of poor health.

Election commissioners will no longer be chosen only on the cabinet's suggestion, as per a new law.

The decision will be made by a search committee followed by a selection committee in a two-step procedure.

The Prime Minister and one of his cabinet colleagues make up the other two members of the selection committee, giving the Centre the advantage even though the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha is on it. The search committee, which is directed by the Union law minister, has not yet disclosed if it has nominated any individuals, according to the Narendra Modi administration.

"This (Goel's resignation) is a great surprise and a matter of concern as the elections are due within a couple of weeks," former chief election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi told The Telegraph.

"India now has only ONE Election Commissioner, even though Lok Sabha elections are to be announced in a few days," tweeted Mallikarjun Kharge, the head of the Congress. Why not?

"Our democracy will be usurped by dictatorship if we do not halt the systematic destruction of our independent institutions," he continued. Now, ECI will be among the final establishments guaranteed by the Constitution.

Only two Lok Sabha elections, in 1999 and 2009, were held by two-member panels since the commission's formation as a three-member body in the early 1990s. This was due to commissioners resigning after the polls were announced. A commission with its entire membership presided over each of the other general elections.

When Goel voluntarily retired in 2022 to join the EC, he was the secretary of the Union for Heavy Industries. The Association for Democratic Reforms, a poll watchdog, filed a challenge with the Supreme Court opposing his appointment, casting doubt on it. Nonetheless, the plea was rejected.

Goel is the second election commissioner to resign in the last five years. In 2020, Ashok Lavasa resigned to accept a post to the Asian Development Bank, which was suggested by the Center. A year earlier, he had objected to a poll panel's decision to absolve Modi of any responsibility for violating the poll code in his statements during the previous Lok Sabha campaign.

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