Now when the dates for the elections of the 18th Lok Sabha are about to be announced, only two members are left in the three-member Election Commission. At present there are only Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Arun Goyal in the Commission.
The third Election Commissioner Anoop Pandey retired on 15 February. Although the government has started the process for the appointment of the third commissioner, it is unlikely that this appointment will be done before the Model Code of Conduct comes into force.
In such a situation, only a two-member Election Commission will have to conduct the Lok Sabha elections. If this happens, then the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be the first such election since 1996, when only two Election Commissioners will announce the voting dates and also conduct the elections.
The Election Commission of India, formed in 1950, became a three-member commission in 1990 and since then has conducted Lok Sabha elections a total of eight times. The 2024 election will be the ninth election.
According to the rules, if the government does not appoint the third Election Commissioner before the election dates are announced, then after the Model Code of Conduct is implemented, permission will have to be taken from Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar for this.
Experts believe that even though the law provides for a three-member Election Commission, it is not necessary that there should be three members to conduct elections.
Earlier, twice during the Lok Sabha elections in 1999 and 2009, the three-member commission had fallen short by one member. This happened due to the retirement of the election commissioners.
However, this year’s case is a little different because in the case of 1999 and 2009, the retirement of the member took place in the middle of the elections, whereas this time Anup Pandey retired on February 15 itself.
Let us tell you that during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami had retired. He announced the election dates on 2 March 2009 and retired on 20 April 2009, after the first phase of voting was over.
After him Naveen Chawla took over as CEC. At that time, only two members Naveen Chawla and SY Qureshi were left in the Commission and it was they who conducted the entire election.
Similarly, during the 13th Lok Sabha elections in 1999, MS Gill was the Chief Election Commissioner. He was accompanied by Election Commissioners GVG Krishnamurthy and JM Lyngdoh.
Krishnamurthy retired three days before the last phase of voting. After that the two-member commission completed the remaining work. From 1950 to 1989, the Election Commission was a single member only.