Ashok Lavasa resigns as Election Commissioner, set to join ADB as Vice President

Ashok Lavasa on August 18 has resigned as Election Commissioner and would soon be joining Asian Development Bank (ADB) as vice president. Lavasa's resignation came a month after the multilateral funding agency named him its next vice president on July 15. The 62-year-old was appointed as the Election Commissioner on 23 January 2018 and has two years left in his tenure.

Lavasa could have become the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) by the end of his tenure in October 2022, succeeding Sunil Arora who is the present CEC. Sushil Chandra, currently posted as Election Commissioner (EC), will be in the line of succession after Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora which otherwise would have been taken over by Lavasa had he not resigned.

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 sends resignation to Rashtrapati Bhavan

According to reports, Lavasa’s ADB appointment was finalised with the Union government's nod and he was recommended for the role by the ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa. He has sent his resignation to Rashtrapati Bhavan and requested to be relieved on August 31. He is likely to join the Philippines-based ADB sometime in September.

The retired 1980 batch Haryana cadre IAS officer, made headlines last year during the 2019 general election, by voicing out his dissent over clean chit being provided to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah on violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). He had informed reporters about the issue at that time.

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(With agency inputs)