Bureaucrats Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar have been chosen for the two vacant posts in the top panel of Election Commission of India, Congress's leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told the media this afternoon.

Mr Chowdhury was part of the panel chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to select two Election Commissioners to assist Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar as the poll body prepares for the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Besides the Prime Minister and Mr Chowdhury, Union Home Minister Amit Shah attended the meeting.

The Congress leader hit out at the Centre over the law that replaced the Chief Justice of India by a Union Minister on the selection committee. "The Chief Justice of India should have been on this committee," he said, adding that the law brought last year had reduced the meeting to a mere "formality". "The government is in the majority on the panel. What they want happens."

The Congress leader said he was given 212 names for scrutiny last night. "I reached Delhi last night and the meeting was today noon. I was given 212 names, how can someone examine so many candidates in a day? Then, I was given 6 shortlisted names before meeting. The majority is with them, so they chose the candidates they wanted," he said.

The Congress leader said he had given a dissent note, questioning the procedure of selection.

Source: NDTV