Two-member ECI in saddle as countdown for LS polls starts
Election Commissioner within the next few days, 2024 is likely to be the first Lok Sabha election since 1996 when the poll panel will announce and conduct general elections steered by a two-member commission instead of the customary three-member one.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has been a multi-member body since the 1990s and has conducted eight Lok Sabha elections in such a format.
Only in two cases, that is during the 1999 and 2009 Lok Sabha polls, was the three-member ECI rendered short by one member, due to members' retirement in the middle of the election cycle.
However, the 2024 Lok Sabha case is different as Election Commissioner Anup Pandey retired well before the election cycle began (on February 15), leaving a vacancy in the poll panel. This has left chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar in the saddle with a single election commissioner Arun Goel as we head to the 18th Lok Sabha election.
While the Centre has initiated the committee-run process for the appointment of a new election commissioner as per the new law on these appointments, there is no word yet on the final decision.
The window for appointing a new EC is fast shrinking with the poll panel readying to announce the Lok Sabha election schedule following which the model code of conduct (MCC) will come into effect. MCC rulebooks require major government appointments only after prior clearance from ECI.
Appointment of a new EC by an incumbent government amid the model code of conduct and in fact even now, just days ahead of the
