February 17th 2025.
On Monday, a meeting was held at the Prime Minister's Office in South Block to select the successor of Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, who will be retiring on February 18. The three-member selection committee, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was responsible for making this crucial decision.
The committee consisted of PM Modi, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was nominated by the Prime Minister. This was the first time the selection of a Chief Election Commissioner was taking place under the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioner Act of 2023, which came into effect in December of that year.
As per this new process, S.S. Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar were appointed as Election Commissioners in March 2024 to fill the vacancies left by the resignation of Arun Goel and the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey. Previously, the senior-most Election Commissioner was usually elevated to the top post after consultation with the outgoing CEC. However, under the revised selection process, the decision is now made based on a majority or consensus within the selection panel.
There are currently several Public Interest Litigations (PILs) pending in the Supreme Court regarding the selection process, particularly concerning the exclusion of the Chief Justice of India from the panel, which was the norm earlier. The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing for these petitions on February 19.
It remains to be seen whether the three-member selection panel will choose a new CEC or decide to elevate one of the current Election Commissioners to the post. If they opt for the former, the new CEC will be responsible for conducting the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, as their tenure is for six years. They will also oversee the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections this year, followed by polls in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Puducherry in 2026, and Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Himachal Pradesh in 2027.
Meanwhile, the Congress party has suggested that the central government postpone the selection meeting until after the Supreme Court has given its decision on February 19. According to Congress leader Ajay Maken, "The Congress party believes that since the Supreme Court has stated that it will hear the matter and provide a decision on what the constitution of the committee should be like, today's meeting should have been postponed..."
The party has also accused the central government of wanting control rather than credibility of the poll body by removing the Chief Justice of India from the selection panel. It remains to be seen how this situation will unfold and who will ultimately be selected as the new Chief Election Commissioner.
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