Hyderabad: The Telangana state government has sent three names to Central Election Commission for selection of the next Chief Electoral Officer of the state, while the Andhra Pradesh government is awaiting return of its Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu from his foreign tour to finalise the names. Present CEO Bhanwar Lal, who heads the poll panel for both the states, will be retiring on October 31 and the two Telugu states will have their own CEOs from the next day.
As per the rules, the state government will have to send a list of its candidates for the CEO to the CEC, which would taken various aspects into account before taking a decision. The TS government has sent the names of municipal administration secretary Navin Mittal, irrigation and panchayat raj secretary Vikas Raj and principal labour secretary Shashank Goel.
According to sources, Mr Mittal is most likely to be picked by the CEC. Meanwhile, the AP government is expected to take a decision on its choices for the CEO’s post soon after Mr Naidu returns on Friday. Sources said that if the AP government fails to finalise the names, the CEC may appoint an in-charge CEO for AP.
