Prospective CEC Ashok Lavasa soon to join as vice president of Asian Development Bank, a year after ‘dissent’

New Delhi: Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa has been appointed as vice president of the Asian Development Bank, a move which will lead to his premature exit from the Election Commission of India which he was set to helm for 18 months from next April.
The Centre is understood to have cleared Lavasa’s appointment to ADB, where he will succeed Diwakar Gupta, who retires on August 31. Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra is likely to become the next CEC in April 2021.

ET gathers that ADB held detailed interactions before the appointment, announced in a press statement by the Bank on Wednesday. ADB officials said that approvals were undertaken before the announcement.

By taking up the assignment, Lavasa will become the first EC to forego a chance to become the next CEC, although there are precedents of two CECs taking up other assignments during their tenure. Lavasa did not comment on the matter when ET contacted him.



The 1980-batch IAS officer and former finance secretary was slated to serve as CEC from April 2021 to October 2022, a constitutional office on par with that of a Supreme Court judge.

He would have helmed ECI during next assembly elections to West Bengal, UP, Assam, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur and Puducherry. Lavasa’s change of job incidentally comes a year after he dissented ECI’s clean chits on Opposition allegations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah violated the model code of conduct during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Soon after the elections, income-tax probes were initiated against Lavasa’s family members, an issue which also reached the Department of Personnel & Training besides a group of secretaries which is examining it.

Precedents of incumbents leaving CEC’s post midway include Nagendra Singh, who resigned in 1973 to join as judge of the International Court of Justice where he served 15 years, including as ICJ president for three years.

There was a mild controversy when the only woman CEC, VS Ramadevi, was ‘moved out’ after two weeks in 1990 to serve as Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha and later as Karnataka governor.

However, no CEC has left midway after the ECI acquired stature during TN Seshan’s tenure. CECs who took up appointments after retirement include RK Trivedi, who became Gujarat governor in 1986, two months after retirement, and MS Gill who became Union minister seven years after retiring.

Lavasa is expected to submit his resignation to the President soon to join as the ADB vice president for private sector operations and public-private partnerships.