Election Commissioner Arun Goel resigns ahead of Lok Sabha polls

Election Commissioner Arun Goel on Saturday resigned from his post ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. President Droupadi Murmu has accepted his resignation.

Goel’s term as the election commissioner was due to end in 2027. “In pursuance of clause (1) of Section 11 of The Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, the President is pleased to accept the resignation tendered by Shri Arun Goel, Election Commissioner with effect from the 09th March 2024,” a gazette notification announcing his resignation read.

With both the election commissioner’s posts empty, the Election Commission of India is now just a one-member body headed by the Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar. For the unversed, there was already a vacancy for an Election Commissioner as Anup Pandey had resigned in February.

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The reason for Goel’s resignation is, however, not known yet.

The development comes as the ECI is expected to announce the dates of the Lok Sabha polls next week.

New law on appointing CEC, ECs

Last year in December, President Murmu gave assent to the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill 2023, which sought to establish a mechanism to appoint top election officials in the country.

The first meeting of the committee that is responsible for appointing the CEC and ECs, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was held in February. The panel was expected to fill the vacancy created by Anup Pandey’s resignation.

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The committee consists of the prime minister, a Union minister and the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha.

Who is Arun Goel?

Goel, a retired bureaucrat, was a 1985-batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre. He had joined the Election Commission in November 2022.

Born in 1962 in Patiala, Goel was awarded the Chancellors Medal of Excellence for being First Class First and Record Breaker at the Punjabi University, where he pursued M. Sc. (Mathematics).

He has also studied Development Economics at the University of Cambridge and has been trained at the John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.