New Delhi: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has appointed Ashok Lavasa as vice-president for Private Sector Operations and Public–Private Partnerships. He will succeed Diwakar Gupta, whose term will end on 31 August.
When reached for a comment, Lavasa said, “I have no intimation regarding this. The decision will be taken by the Bank.”
However, a spokesperson of the ADB, Rajesh Deol, confirmed the appointment.
This is the first time a sitting election commissioner has received another appointment before completing their term.
Lavasa and his family have courted headlines often since the Lok Sabha polls last year, when he emerged as the lone dissenter in the Election Commission’s decision to give clean chits to Prime Minster Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for alleged poll code violations.
In the months that followed, a barrage of income tax notices were slapped against Lavasa’s wife, Novel, and son Abir.
Also read: Ethics, transparency, Gandhi — the profound issues EC Ashok Lavasa has been tweeting about
Sources said the government had recommended a few nominees to the ADB, including Lavasa’s name.
An IAS officer of the 1980 batch, Lavasa serves in the poll panel alongside fellow Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora.
A former finance secretary, Lavasa is in line to become the chief election commissioner when Arora retires in April 2021.
CEC Sunil Arora told ThePrint that he has no information of any such development.
Also read: Path to honesty is tortuous, sometimes damaging: Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa