New Delhi: N. Gopalaswami will be the next Chief Election Commissioner. He will succeed B. B. Tandon whose tenure will be complete by June end.

According to sources, the Manmohan Singh Government has decided to elevate Mr. Gopalaswami, the senior of the two incumbent Election Commissioners, to the post of the Chief Election Commissioner. Navin Chawla is the other Election Commissioner.

The Prime Minister, as per these sources, is anxious to put to rest all speculations on who would be Mr. Tandon's successor at the Nirvachan Sadan.

Mr. Gopalaswami will remain Chief Election Commissioner till the run-up to the next Lok Sabha elections, assuming there are no mid-term polls.

Mr. Gopalaswami became a member of the Election Commission during the last months of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government. Then, he was Union Home Secretary in the ministry headed by then Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani. The choice of the Chief Election Commissioner is always politically dicey, more so in the current context of the office-of-profit controversy. The Constitution, under Article 103, stipulates a key role for the Election Commission in determining "disqualification" of a Member of Parliament.

Only a few days ago, a delegation of NDA leaders had presented a memorandum to the Election Commission, demanding that the Nirvachan Sadan expeditiously dispose off the 40-odd complaints forwarded by the President over the office-of-profit issue.

Though it is currently a three-member Election Commission and all decisions are presumed to be taken unanimously or, if it comes to that, by a majority vote, the Chief Election Commissioner sets the tone and tenor of the Commission. It is the personality and temperament of the Chief Election Commissioner that determines the independence and the distance the Commission maintains vis-à-vis the government of the day.

Mr. Gopalaswami will preside over the Election Commission during the crucial Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab next year.

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