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Journalism of Courage
The three-member panel chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday picked former bureaucrats Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu as the new Election Commissioners.
The selection committee consisting of PM Modi, law minister Arjun Meghwal and Leader of Opposition Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury met Thursday morning to consider names for the vacant positions of election commissioner.
A retired IAS officer of the 1988 batch from Uttarakhand cadre, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu served as the Secretary to the Lokpal.
He was appointed as the EC on February 3 this year, on contract basis for a period of one year. His term was till February 4, 2025.
As part of the Central government, he has served in the Ministry of Education (formerly known as the Ministry of Human Resource Development).
Sandhu was appointed as Uttarakhand’s Chief Secretary, in his home cadre, when Pushkar Singh Dhami became the chief minister. He was also the Chairman of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) between 2019 and 2021.
The vacancies filled by Kumar and Sandhu had come up after the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey on February 14 and the sudden resignation of Arun Goel on March 9, days before the expected announcement of the 2024 Lok Sabha election schedule.
Six names were shortlisted prior to the final selection. The list included Utpal Kumar Singh, Pradeep Kumar Tripathi, Gyanesh Kumar, Indevar Pandey, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, Sudhir Kumar Gangadhar Rahate, all former bureaucrats.
