Lavasa may leave poll panel to join as ADB vice-prez

NEW DELHI: Election commissioner Ashok Lavasa, who was expected to take over as chief election commissioner (CEC) in 2021, may leave the poll body prematurely to join the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as its vice president.

The 1980-batch Haryana cadre IAS officer has almost two years remaining in his tenure and has been in line to take over as CEC from Sunil Arora. His early exit would give Sushil Chandra a shot at the top post.

Manila-based ADB on Wednesday announced that Lavasa, 62, had been appointed as vice-president of private sector operations and public-private partnerships. The central government recommends nominees to postings at the multilateral lender, officials said.

“The appointment could not have been made without in-principle approval from the government,” a senior EC official said

Lavasa was one of the key dissenters when the election commission (EC) took a call on whether or not to give a clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah for speeches that allegedly violated the model code conduct ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.