Panel To Select New Election Commissioners On March 14: Reports

A high-powered committee, led by the Prime Minister and responsible for selecting election commissioners, is scheduled to convene on March 14, said sources.

The committee aims to finalize the appointments of two new Election Commissioners during this meeting.

Notably, the Law Ministry has dispatched an amended communication to all panel members, rescheduling the session from its initial timing at 6 PM on March 15 to the revised time of 12 noon on March 14.

Two positions for election commissioners became available after Arun Goel resigned on Friday and Anup Chandra Pandey retired on February 14.

The selection panel is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has a Union minister and the Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as its members.

The election commissioners will be appointed by the president.

According to PTI, the appointment of two new election commissioners is likely to be made by the same day or the next. The notice for the meeting to select one EC was earier sent on Saturday afternoon while Goel's resignation was notified in the evening.

The amended notice for selection of two ECs was sent by the Law ministry on Monday evening.

The March 14 notice, the sources said, refers to the postponed meeting of the committee that was to be held on March 7 to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Pandey. The fresh notice adds the replacement of Goel who resigned.

Days before the poll panel is expected to announce the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls, Goel resigned on Friday morning. His resignation was accepted by President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday and the Union Law Ministry issued a notification to announce it.

This leaves Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar as the sole member of the poll body.