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| Prez approves Chawla as CEC | | |
New Delhi, March 04: President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday approved the government’s recommendation to appoint Navin Chawla as the country’s next Chief Election Commissioner.
Chawla, who at present is an Election Commissioner, will take over as the CEC from N Gopalaswami on April 21. Gopalaswami’s term as the head of the Election Commission expires on April 20.
The development comes just days after the President rejected a controversial recommendation by CEC Gopalaswami for the removal of Chawla as EC.
While arriving at the decision, the President accepted the government recommendation for rejection of the CEC's report on January 31 against Chawla, who has been accused of being biased in favour of the Congress party.
The decision came as no surprise since the government had made clear its view that the CEC was not empowered to seek removal of a fellow Commissioner except if a Presidential reference was made to him.
Former IAS officer SY Quraishi is the other Commissioner in the three-member Election Commission.
Chawla, an IAS officer of 1969 batch, was appointed as Election Commission in May, 2005 and will serve in the poll panel till 2010.
Within days of Gopalaswami's recommendation, Law Minister HR Bhardwaj had said said that the controversy should not affect Chawla's career. Bhardwaj stated that the government had a policy to have the senior most Election Commissioner as the CEC and "our policy continues to be the same".
The Election Commission has already announced the schedule for the upcoming General Elections. The Lok Sabha polls, to be held in five phases, begin on April 16 and conclude on May 16 with the counting of votes. The 15th Lok Sabha has to convene before June 2.
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