Arun Goel's resignation: Issues with CEC simmered; escalated over past few days
Arun Goel's resignation as election commissioner, although a surprise, was preceded by simmering differences with chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar. The issues appeared to have escalated over the last few weeks following Anup Pandey's retirement on February 15.
ET has learnt that most disagreements were not about major policy issues. However, differences continued and involved issues such as the composition and size of EC teams heading to states for poll preparation reviews and the formats of press briefings in states, among others.
Insiders said that despite such disagreements, there was no recorded case of 'dissent' between the duo at Nirvachan Sadan. The differences were rather «expressed verbally».
It is also learnt that the three-member commission — when Pandey was in office — was able to address some of these differences more amicably. In cases of differing views, the commission is learnt to have revised notes and documents. Some of Goel's suggestions were «accepted as well».
CEC and Goel were recently seen discussing relevant issues during a review meeting in West Bengal. However, the latter did not attend the final press briefing in Kolkata. Goel was present at recent briefings in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Those aware of issues felt that the nature of differences did not seem to warrant Goel's resignation on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections.
The current scenario at the election commission reminds one of 2019 general elections, when the panel was in news for divisions
