On Tuesday evening, Anup Chandra Pandey was appointed as the Election Commissioner by President Ram Nath Kovind. The former Uttar Pradesh-cadre IAS officer will join the poll panel as one of the two EC, alongside Rajiv Kumar.
A vacancy had been created earlier this year after Sunil Arora's term came to an end. Currently, Sushil Chandra is the Chief Election Commissioner.
Pandey is a retired Indian Administrative Service Officer (IAS) of the 1984 batch who retired as the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh in August 2019. He had succeeded Rajive Kumar to the post in June 2018 and also functioned as the Additional Chief Secretary of the Institutional Finance Department and Infrastructure and Industrial Development Department during this time.
The Commission will oversee Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand next year.
As soon as this news spread around, criticism started pouring in about the motive behind Pandey being elected as the election commissioner.
While many are congratulating the new election commissioner, others are questioning why someone who assisted UP CM Yogi Adityanath is being given the charge of the election commission right before the uttar Pradesh elections.
Here's what people are saying. Have a look.
