Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, who was next in line to head the poll panel, resigned on Tuesday to join the Philippines-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) as vice-president.
ADB had in July announced that it has appointed Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa as vice-president for private sector operations and public-private partnerships. Lavasa will succeed Diwakar Gupta, whose term will end on August 31.
According to reports, Lavasa has submitted his resignation to President Ram Nath Kovind and has requested to be relieved on August 31. He is likely to join the ADB in September.
His resignation as puts his colleague Sushil Chandra next in the line of succession to become CEC after the term of incumbent Sunil Arora ends.
Lavasa would have retired as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) in October 2022. He is only the second election commissioner to step down from the poll panel before the completion of his term. In 1973, CEC Nagendra Singh quit the poll panel after he was appointed a judge in the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
Lavasa, a career bureaucrat, was appointed Election Commissioner in January 2018. The 1980 batch IAS officer of Haryana cadre also served as Finance Secretary. Previously, he served as Union Secretary for the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, and Union Secretary for the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
He completed his Bachelor of Arts Degree with English Honors and a Master of Arts in English Literature from Delhi University. He has an MBA degree from Southern Cross University in Australia, and MPhil in Defense and Strategic Studies degree from the University of Madras.
"He has extensive experience in public-private partnerships and infrastructure development at the state and federal levels, with deep knowledge on public policy and the role of private sector," ADB said in a statement last month.
"At both policy and project levels, he made significant contributions to the inclusion of the private sector in many development programs in India for different sectors such as energy, agriculture, finance, and infrastructure. As Joint Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, he worked closely with many ADB projects that had private sector components," it said.
During 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Lavasa was the lone Election Commissioner to register dissent on decisions related to complaints of model code violation against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
