Ashok Lavasa to join Asian Development Bank, quit as EC

Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa has been appointed the vice president of the Philippines-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) and would oversee private sector operations and public-private partnerships, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday (July 15).

Lavasa who was second in line for the post of the Chief Election Commissioner will have to step down two years before the completion of his term (October 2022). His colleague Sushil Chandra would be next in line for the post.

Lavasa will be the second election commissioner after Nagendra Singh (1973) to leave the panel before the completion of his term. Singh was appointed a judge in the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

At ADB, Lavasa succeeds Diwakar Gupta whose term ends on August 31.

A 1980 batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre, Lavasa was appointed as the election commissioner in January 2018.

If he had succeeded Sunil Arora, Lavasa would have overseen Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur.

An Indian Express report says his appointment with ADB was finalised at the nod of the central government. It is to be noted that Lavasa had refused to agree to the Election Commission’s decision to clear Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah of charges of violation of poll model code of conduct during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Later, the Income Tax department had also issued notices to his wife Novel Singhal Lavasa for alleged tax evasion.