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Siddiqui tipped to be Election Commissioner
T.R. Ramachandran
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 22
The superannuated Director General of Police of Punjab, Mr A.A. Siddiqui, is strongly tipped to be an Election Commissioner in the three-member Commission with Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy retiring on May 15.

Dr Siddiqui, who retired as Punjab Police DGP on January 31 this year, was brought back to his home cadre of Punjab from Manipur by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh. He came to Chandigarh initially as an ADGP and with Mr M.S. Bhullar’s retirement took over as DGP, Punjab, in August 2003 and served in that capacity for 18 months till his superannuation.

With Mr Krishna Murthy’s upcoming retirement next month, several names were in contention for the third slot in the multi-member Election Commission, a creation of the Constitution which is vested with the responsibility of holding and overseeing free and fair elections in the country. The current chief of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Mr K.M. Singh, also appears to be in the running having served in the Intelligence Bureau as well. Mr K.M. Singh is due to retire at the end of this month.

Lobbies had been activated for the slot of the third Election Commissioner and the scales appear to be tilting in favour of Dr Siddiqui, whose son is married to the daughter of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmad Patel. In many respects the low profile Mr Patel, who shuns media attention, is the main trouble shooter for Mrs Gandhi.

If the Manmohan Singh government goes by convention and accepted practice, Election Commission B B Tandon as the senior most in the Election Commission should succeed Mr Krishna Murthy. In that case Mr Tandon will be Chief Election Commissioner for 13 months till he attains the age of 65 in June 2006. For Mr Krishna Murthy, May 13 will be his last working day in the Nirvachan Sadan and his successor will take up position on May 16.

The term of the CEC and the Election Commissioner is five years or attaining 65 years of age, whichever is earlier.

Clearly, the thinking in the UPA government is to have a seasoned officer who has dealt with law and order in the ranks of the Election Commissioners. Should Dr Siddiqui’s appointment as an Election Commissioner go through, he will have the distinction of being the first member of the largest minority community to make his advent in the Nirvachan Sadan.