Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Sunday raised three questions over the sudden resignation of election commissioner Arun Goel ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He slammed the Narendra Modi government alleging that “Modi’s India deals an added blow to democracy and democratic institutions” each day.

The Congress leader also hit out at the Election Commission of India for refusing to meet the INDIA bloc parties for the past eight months “on the issue of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) that are so very essential to prevent Electronic Voting Manipulation (EVM)”.

Congress’ three questions include:

1. “Did he (Arun Goel) actually resign over differences with the Chief Election Commissioner or with the Modi Govt, which does the front-seat driving for all supposedly independent institutions?”

2. ⁠”Or did he resign for personal reasons?”

3. “⁠Or did he, like the Calcutta High Court Judge a few days back, resign to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket?”

Arun Goel resigned as the election commissioner on Saturday, speaking speculation about his sudden move. The resignation came days before the expected announcement of the schedule for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. According to a law ministry notification, Goel’s resignation has been accepted by President Droupadi Murmu with effect from Saturday.

While the reason behind Goel’s resignation is not yet known, some media reports claimed that there were “differences on various issues”. Meanwhile, some reports said that he resigned owing to “personal reasons”.

Notably, Goel’s tenure was till December 5, 2027. He would have become chief election commissioner (CEC) after incumbent Rajiv Kumar retired in February next year.

Arun Goel, a retired bureaucrat, was a 1985-batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre. He had joined the Election Commission in November 2022. Following his resignation and the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey in February, the three-member election commission now only has one member – the chief election commissioner.