To reiterate, why did Election Commissioner Arun Goel resign? And what about filling the empty slot left by the retirement of the other election commissioner? Anup Pandey retired on February 15 and now, there is only Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, the lone sentinel guarding Nirvachan Sadan's gates. And reports are being planted that Arun Goel and Rajiv Kumar had irreconcilable differences and Arun left, leaving Rajiv in the lurch.

The "simmering differences" apparently escalated in the weeks after Election Commissioner Anup Pandey retired. Another "source" said the differences, or "disagreements”, were minor blips on the CEC and the Modi administration's radars and nobody thought catastrophe would visit so soon before general elections. It isn't Ramadan. Goel is not a Muslim and what is happening in Gaza is of no concern to the Election Commission of India. ArunGoel could have left to contest the General Election on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket as Kolkata High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay did recently.

The Modi government has now activated the "Search Committee" and a hunt for a suitable Election Commissioner is earnestly on. Therefore, the Prime Minister's visit to the Kaziranga National Park, and the elephant ride with the binoculars conspicuously displayed? If anybody hasn't noticed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is always the surprise package. When Pulwama happened, Modi was filming with a survival-kit in a jungle. Modi does many things that are inexplicable.

For example, did Prime Minister Narendra Modi have anything to do with election commissioner Arun Goel's abrupt departure? Definitely, don't think Goel will disclose anything. Nosey journalists say the Goel-CEC differences were not earthshaking; that they had to do with EC teams preparing the ground for General Elections 2024. How many in the public know that ruling dispensations as easily cover-up as they flood the airwaves with disinformation?

But there were "no recorded cases of “dissent" in the Nirvachan Sadan till Goel passed the baton on to no one in particular. The disagreements were voiced in "tu-tu, mai-mai" mode and the disinformation includes the one about some of Goel’s recommendations “adopted as well”. It is being spread that the CEC and Goel reviewed issues regarding West Bengal and elections, and even if Goel may not have attended "a press briefing in Kolkata", he was present in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh briefings.

Most importantly, the rumours said none of the differences were of such magnitude that Goel had to resign. But why did Goel quit if there was no rhyme or reason, and that, too, when the Lok Sabha elections are just days away? Some people find a parallel in the 2019 general elections scenario. Then, too, say Modi apologists, CEC Sunil Arora and Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa were at loggerheads.

So, it is standard operating procedure for the CEC and one or both of the election commissioners to get into a war of words with him over this or that matter on the eve of general elections and, then, for one of the election commissioners to quit, leaving the field open for games to be played? Grapevine says CEC Rajiv Kumar and EC Arun Goel hardly concurred, in which case why didn't the Modi regime step in and sort things out between them?

Was the government waiting for General elections 2024 to create a diversion? Goel has been Election Commissioner from November 2022 and must have been tussling with the CEC since then. A 1985-batch Punjab cadre IAS officer, Goel was no fool. Why would he quit to fight the elections when his base is Punjab, which is an AAP stronghold and a BJP Waterloo? Goel's appointment as an election commissioner was itself embroiled in controversy but nobody would go out of his way to characterize Goel as "controversy's child". Such epithets did not fit the man.

The plethora of opposition parties do not believe in Arun Goel or the Modi government. Almost every opposition party considers Goel a BJP-stooge and he's rated worse than the Kolkata High Court judge who left in a huff. Most of the opposition parties are convinced Goel is off to try his electoral luck, or it could be that Goel had major differences with the Modi government, and by extension the CEC, on matters related to conducting General Election 2024.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said Gangopadhyay resigned and started badmouthing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee and a similar something could be expected from Goel, who is "another BJP-appointed person with the same mindset?" Congress Communication head Jairam Ramesh's bet is on Goel developing major differences with the Modi government or Goel taking a cue from Abhijjit Gangopadhyay? The key point is the Modi government is being looked at very suspiciously by people and persons on the eve of a life-altering general election. (IPA Service)