The selection of a new Chief Election Commissioner – who will oversee the conduct of polls in Bihar later this year and, most probably in Bengal and Tamil Nadu next year, as well as in Assam and Kerala – will begin soon, sources told. The selection committee is expected to meet Monday.
The committee will consist of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in his capacity as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
The process will start a day before the Supreme Court hears petitions against the new law governing selection of a CEC and ECs. Critics say the law gives the centre an edge in the processes.
The current Chief Election Commissioner is Rajiv Kumar, who will demit office on Tuesday.
Rajiv Kumar As CEC
Mr Kumar was appointed as the CEC in May 2022.
Since then he has overseen multiple high-profile electoral exercises, including the Lok Sabha election in April-June last year and Jammu and Kashmir’s first Assembly poll in over a decade.
He conducted the presidential elections in 2022 and in 2023 oversaw the Karnataka and Telangana polls, which the Congress won, and the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan polls, which the BJP won.
He concluded his tenure as the poll panel chief with last week’s Delhi election.
Retirement Plans?
In January, while announcing the Delhi poll dates, Mr Kumar had quipped he plans to “detoxify” himself by spending several months in solitary confinement in the Himalayas after he retires.
“I will detoxify myself for the next four-five months… go to the Himalayas, be away from the glare of (the media). I need some solitude…” he said. Mr Kumar, a 1984-batch IAS officer from the Bihar/Jharkhand cadre, also spoke about wanting to give back to teach underprivileged children.
Claims During Tenure
Mr Kumar’s tenure as the Chief Election Commissioner was marked by multiple complaints, particularly from the Congress and, in the run-up to the Delhi election, the Aam Aadmi Party.
The opposition had routinely alleged the EC favours the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and also questioned the use of EVMs, or electronic voting machines, claiming it can be hacked.
The EC also came under fire over the release of data on voting day; during the Haryana election last year, for example, the Congress was very critical of delays in publishing live voting trends.
Meanwhile, AAP boss Arvind Kejriwal had hit out last month, days before voting for the Delhi election, declaring the poll panel had “surrendered before the BJP”.
Mr Kejriwal – whose party was thumped, and who lost his seat in the Assembly – hinted darkly at a quid-pro-quo between Mr Kumar and the central government, a charge the CEC flatly denied.
On Wednesday, Mr Kumar asserted that that the system of poll data is robust with in-built “red flags” which ensure that “nothing can go wrong”. He declared himself “very confident” that nothing could go wrong; “… even if someone makes an error, the system won’t accept it”.
On EVMs, he dismissed talk of manipulation or voter fraud, pointing out the machines had passed several tests of judicial scrutiny, including by the Supreme Court.
“EVMs are not hackable. Every claim of manipulation has been thoroughly investigated and debunked. This technology has consistently upheld the principles of free and fair elections,” he said.
