In the aftermath of Jagdeep Dhankhar’s sudden resignation, the Election Commission (EC) has set the ball rolling for the Vice Presidential elections.
On Friday, it announced the appointment of Rajya Sabha Secretary General P C Mody as the Returning Officer for the elections. Garima Jain and Vijay Kumar, the Joint Secretary and Director of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, were named Assistant Returning Officers.
Mody’s appointment as Rajya Sabha Secretary General in November 2021 had been controversial, with the Opposition demanding to know why he had been brought in place of his predecessor, P P K Ramacharyulu, who was barely two months into the job. The change had, besides, coincided with that year’s Monsoon Session.
Ramacharyulu was the first Rajya Sabha Secretariat official to have risen to that post, a point that was flagged when he was named. But his replacement and shunting out as “advisor” was unceremonious.
“It is surprising and shocking. When the Session had been called already, why has this sudden decision been taken? What is the purpose and intention behind this, we have to find out,” Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge told The Indian Express then.
He also pointed out that the usual practice was to appoint law experts as Secretary General. Mody is a 1982-batch Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax cadre) officer, who retired as chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes in May 2021, after nearly two years in the job.
“Whether they have consulted the Vice President of India who is also the Chairman of the House, we do not know. That also we will have to find out. Why have they appointed a new Secretary General in such a great hurry? Why have they replaced Ramacharyulu who was appointed just two months ago when the Session had been called under his signature?” Kharge said.
Congress Chief Whip in Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh responded on Twitter: “Not surprised at all. Dr P P Ramacharyulu is a thorough professional, non-partisan and perfectly qualified for the post — three deadly sins in the Modi regime.”
The Trinamool Congress and the RJD, too, expressed surprise.
“It is not known why a person who was appointed hardly 73 days ago has been replaced all of a sudden by an IRS officer,” TMC chief whip Sukhendu Shekhar Roy told The Indian Express.
“He could not attend a single session because his appointment was done after the last session was over. And on the eve of a new session you bring in somebody new; that raises questions,” said RJD’s leader in Rajya Sabha Manoj Jha.
Earlier, Mody was caught in a row when Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (Mumbai) lodged a complaint with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman against Mody, accusing him of a “shocking” directive to bury a “sensitive case”.
The complaint, reported by The Indian Express, also alleged that the CBDT Chairman had informed the Chief Commissioner that he had “secured” his position because of a “successful search” action against an Opposition leader. When contacted then, Mody was unavailable for comment.
Two months after the complaint, he was given a one-year extension by the Government and was subsequently given two more extensions as head of the premier tax body.
Under Article 66(1) of the Constitution, the Vice-President is elected by an electoral college comprising members of both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, using the system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote, with voting conducted by secret ballot.
A Returning Officer is responsible for the overall conduct of the elections, including giving public notice of the intended election, collecting and accepting nomination papers, collecting the nomination sum, scrutinising the forms, accepting withdrawals if any, and supervising counting.