Question Oppn parties: Did Arun Goel leave as EC because of disagreements with the CEC or the Modi government?

The Congress and other opposition parties questioned if Arun Goel’s resignation as election commissioner was brought on by disagreements with the chief election commissioner or the Narendra Modi administration on Sunday, the day following Goel’s resignation. Taking jabs at the BJP, several opposition politicians also questioned if Goel had resigned in order to run for the Lok Sabha seat on the party’s ticket, similar to that of former High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay.

Jairam Ramesh, general secretary of the Congress, said, “The resignation of Arun Goel as Election Commissioner last evening raises three questions.” Was his resignation really due to disagreements with the Chief Election Commissioner or the Modi Government, which controls all purportedly independent institutions? Maybe he resigned for personal reasons? Ramesh said on X, “Or maybe he resigned to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket, like the Calcutta High Court Judge a few days back.”

The head of the Congress claimed that the Election Commission has been refusing to meet with INDIA parties for the last eight months over the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), which is necessary to stop “electronic voting manipulation.” “Each passing day in Modi’s India deals an added blow to democracy and democratic institutions,” he said.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said, “You have to wait and see what he does in the coming days,” when asked about Goel’s resignation. “I was considering that after the high court judge’s resignation, he or she joined the BJP the next day and began mistreating the TMC. It demonstrates that the BJP has chosen appointees who share this attitude. “Now the election commissioner has resigned, let us wait for some time to see what he does,” he said.

Sanjay Raut, a representative of the Shiv Sena (UBT), said that the Election Commission had evolved into a “extended branch of the BJP”. He said that the Election Commission is not the same as it was under TN Seshan, who served as an unbiased monitor over the elections. “The Election Commission has been privatized for the last ten years. It has evolved into a BJP branch,” he said.

He added that just one person remained in the Election Commission after two left. “Like BJP’s people have been appointed in high courts, Supreme Court, Governor’s house, in the same manner, they would appoint two of their BJP people here too,” Raut said.

Ramesh said, “It is possible that Arun Goel resigned to contest elections on a BJP ticket” . Just before the Lok Sabha elections, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi asked Goel and the administration to explain his resignation. “It would be better if he (Arun Goel) himself or the government would tell the reason behind the resignation ahead of the Lok Sabha elections,” he said.
Saket Gokhale, the head of the TMC, inquired “Why did Election Commissioner Arun Goel abruptly resign last night just after cutting short his trip to Bengal with the ECI.”

“What clarifies this unexpected enigma only a few days before the elections? He said, “This is a segment of the ‘chronology’ of Modi’s & BJP’s shady tactics to steal votes in Bengal. Bengal has always rejected the “anti-Bengal outsider zamindars of the BJP,” he said, which has disturbed them. He said, “In the face of a certain defeat, they’ve tried everything including depriving Bengal of its rightful financial dues, sending 100s of companies of central forces to Bengal before the elections and influencing a sitting HC judge who resigned” .

Gokhale said that the BJP “forced” Goel into “abruptly resign so that Modi and his one chosen minister get to appoint two out of three Election Commissioners days before Lok Sabha polls are announced” . MP Kapil Sibal, an independent, called it a concerning trend. “It is okay to fill the Commission with males who say yes. He said on X, “This holds true for every institution that forms the cornerstone of our Republic.

“We should be concerned by this sudden resignation, since it is not typical for someone to do so just before the Lok Sabha elections. Perhaps the reasons he gave for his resignation—that they were personal—are sincere. However, that is improbable,” Sibal said. Additionally, it’s possible that there was some kind of dispute about the West Bengal elections between him and the chief election commissioner. I’m not sure why exactly, but that’s just conjecture.

He said that our nation’s institutions are being “slowly decimated,” notably the Election Commission, which is required by the constitution to guarantee free and fair elections. “And, over the years, it has been decimated, and in the last ten years, they have captured almost all institutions in this country,” the former union minister said, citing the Election Commission as another casualty.

“In the last 10 years, it looks like the Election Commission has become an extended arm of the government,” he said. “Now, on the eve of elections, an election commissioner – Arun Goel – has actually resigned,” TMC MP Sagarika Ghose said. What does this say about the biggest democracy in the world?”

Days before the anticipated release of the dates for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Goel tendered his resignation on Saturday. His term ended on December 5, 2027, and he was scheduled to take over as Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on Rajiv Kumar’s retirement in February of the following year.

President Droupadi Murmu has accepted Goel’s resignation, effective Saturday, according to a statement from the Law Ministry. The reason for his resignation was first unknown. Goel was a Punjab cadre IAS officer from the 1985 batch. In November 2022, he became a member of the Election Commission.

With Goel’s resignation and Anup Chandra Pandey’s retirement in February, the three-member EC is now down to only CEC Rajiv Kumar.