A search committee led by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal met on Wednesday evening as they prepared a panel of five candidates for the two vacancies of election commissioners in the Election Commission.
Former IAS officers Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu have been appointed as election commissioners on Thursday, ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha polls after a panel led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi picked the former bureaucrats as the new election commissioners.
The committee was comprised Union Minister Arjun Meghwal and Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told ANI after the selection process, "In this committee, govt has the majority....One Mr Kumar from Kerala and one Mr B. Sandhu from Punjab have been selected as Election Commissioners."
He also mentioned that six names had come up before the panel for the selection of the two ECs and the names of Sandhu and Kumar were finalised by a majority of members of the high-powered panel.
Chowdhury further emphasized that the Chief Justice of India should have been part of the selection panel and he was unaware of the process of selection of those six names from over 200 candidates which is said to have come before the search committee headed by the Law Minister.
According to PTI, the six names shortlisted were that of Utpal Kumar Singh, Pradeep Kumar Tripathi, Gyanesh Kumar, Indevar Pandey, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, Sudhir Kumar Gangadhar Rahate, all former bureaucrats.
During his tenure in the Home ministry, Gyanesh Kumar oversaw the abrogation of Article 370.
President Droupadi Murmu will appoint the two new members of the election commission as the selection panel has decided on the final candidates.
Former bureaucrats Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar are the first to have been selected under the new law.
The law also gives power to the three-member selection panel to appoint a person not short-listed by the search committee, reported PTI.
Earlier, the President appointed he election commissioners based on the government's recommendation and tradition, with the most senior member being designated as the CEC.
The selection committee meeting has come during a critical time as Election Commissioner Arun Goel announced his resignation suddenly weeks after Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey retired from his post leader CEC Rajiv Kumar alone on the top panel of the body which is set to announce dates for Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition parties called Goel's sudden resignation "systematic decimation of independent institutions". As per NDTV, Goel cited 'personal reasons' as cause for his action.