Adhir Chowdhury
Former bureaucrats Sukhbir Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar have been chosen as new election commissioners by a committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. Chowdhury, who opposes the government, disagreed with the selection process. He said he wasn’t given the names of the candidates beforehand and questioned how only six names were picked out of over 200 candidates.
Chowdhury mentioned that Sukhbir Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar were selected by most members of the committee. He also stated that the Chief Justice of India should have been part of the committee. The six shortlisted candidates included Utpal Kumar Singh, Pradeep Kumar Tripathi, Gyanesh Kumar, Indevar Pandey, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, and Sudhir Kumar Gangadhar Rahate.
Chowdhury expressed concern that the government seemed to have too much influence in the process. He said he was given a list of 212 names initially, but just six names 10 minutes before the appointment. He added that although the process isn’t necessarily unfair, there are some issues with it.
Gyanesh Kumar, during his time in the Home Ministry, was involved in the removal of Article 370. The vacancies for election commissioners arose after Anup Chandra Pandey retired on February 14 and Arun Goel resigned suddenly.
