Who is Arun Goel, election commissioner who resigned before Lok Sabha polls?

In a shock move, Election Commissioner Arun Goel resigned ahead of the Lok Sabha elections on March 9. His exit is as sudden as was his appointment to the post.

Goel was a 1985-batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre. He took voluntary retirement on November 18, 2022 and was appointed election commissioner just a day later.

His appointment was challenged in the Supreme Court by Association for Democratic Reforms or ADR. The apex court had questioned the Centre over the hurried appointment but the plea was later dismissed by a two-judge bench.

Born in Patiala, Goel is post-graduate with distinction in development economics from Churchill College, University of Cambridge, England and has been trained at John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA.

Goel's tenure as election commissioner was till December 5, 2027, and he would have become Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) after incumbent Rajiv Kumar retired in February next year.

Following the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey in February and Goel's resignation, the three-member EC has now only one member - CEC Rajiv Kumar.

Opposition parties, including Congress and TMC, have questioned Goel's sudden resignation.

In a post on X, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said, "Election Commission or Election OMISSION? India now has only one Election Commissioner, even as Lok Sabha elections are to be announced in few days. Why?" "As I have said earlier, if we do not stop the systematic decimation of our independent institutions, our democracy shall be usurped by dictatorship!" he said.

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