The high-level committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Thursday the appointment of retired IAS officers Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu as Election Commissioners.

However, senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Opposition member in the panel, expressed dissent over the process. He raised concerns that the shortlisted names of officers were not provided to him in advance, despite his request. Chowdhury emphasized that having access to the shortlist before the meeting would have allowed him to review details of all the candidates. He mentioned that the Government had forwarded the names of 212 officers on Wednesday.

According to sources, Chowdhury received five lists containing 236 names, which included:

• 92 retired officers who served as Secretaries or equivalent in the Government of India,
• 93 serving officers in similar positions,
• 15 retired Chief Secretaries of states and union territories in the last year,
• 28 current Chief Secretaries in states and union territories.