NEW DELHI: Former IAS officers Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu have been appointed as election commissioners on Thursday and can hit the bottom working with the Election Fee set to announce ballot dates for Lok Sabha and 4 state assemblies.The 2 appointments have been accredited by the PM-led choice committee at a gathering on Thursday afternoon, attended by dwelling minister Amit Shah and chief of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as the opposite two members.Chowdhury put up a dissent notice elevating questions over the process for appointment of the 2 EC members, calling it a “mere formality” as he was given a shortlist of six candidates “just 10 minutes before the meeting”.The 2 vacancies have been triggered attributable to completion of Anup Chandra Pandey’s tenure in February upon turning 65 and the sudden resignation of Arun Goel on March 8.Kumar and Sandhu belong to the 1988 batch of IAS and had superannuated in Jan; the latter, although, was on a six-month extension.Provided that each have been appointed as EC members on the identical day, it stays to be seen who will succeed chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar whose tenure ends in Feb 2025. As per conference, the senior-most election commissioner is appointed because the CEC, and seniority is counted from the day of the member becoming a member of the fee.Sources indicated that the clue as to who’s senior of the 2 might lie within the notification of their appointment. The legislation ministry notification named Kumar first, and sources mentioned this indicated that he can be senior to Sandhu, making him subsequent in line for the CEC’s publish by the seniority precept.Kumar, an IAS officer of Kerala cadre, retired as secretary, ministry of cooperation, on Jan 31. He may have a five-year tenure until Jan 2029, when he turns 65. Sandhu, who belongs to the Uttarakhand cadre, may have a tenure of four-and-a-half years till July 2028. He had retired as chief secretary of Uttarakhand and had earlier served as NHAI chairman.Talking to reporters after the choice committee assembly, Chowdhury mentioned he had sought a shortlist of candidates from the government in order that he may give an knowledgeable opinion about their talents and integrity, however the govt despatched him a listing of 212 candidates as a substitute. “I had to examine the 212 names in a matter of 12 hours. And I was given a list of six names just ahead of the meeting. What could I do? So I said, I don’t accept it. These are names for such high posts and I was given information just 10 minutes before the meeting as a formality. So, I said I have come for the meeting as part of your formality, and I oppose it,” he mentioned.Kumar was in command of the Kashmir division within the dwelling ministry when Article 370 was nullified in J&Okay. He was additionally a part of MHA’s devoted desk for Ayodhya case-related issues, and was concerned in formation of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Belief.In 2014, because the resident commissioner of Kerala in Delhi, Kumar was deputed by the state govt to evacuate 46 nurses caught in Erbil in war-torn Iraq. The operation was profitable with the evacuation of 183 Indians, together with 70 from Kerala, from Iraq. Kumar, an IIT-Kanpur graduate, is a post-graduate in economics from Harvard College.Sandhu was chief secretary of Uttarakhand till July 2023 and had ready the bottom for implementation of Uniform Civil Code within the state. He was additionally intently concerned within the reconstruction efforts of Kedarnath temple. He’s an MBBS from Amritsar Medical School and in addition has a grasp’s diploma in historical past.
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