Ashok Lavasa will join Asian Development Bank as vice president
Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa has resigned to join Asian Development Bank as vice president. The resignation came a month after the multilateral funding agency on July 15 named him its next vice president.
Mr Lavasa, 62, was appointed Election Commissioner in January 2018 and has two years left in his tenure.
Mr Lavasa's appointment to Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approval of the centre. Mr Lavasa made headlines last year after a dissenting opinion on a panel's ruling of complaints against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah during the Lok Sabha election campaign.
Six complaints were filed against PM Modi. Mr Lavasa disagreed with his panel colleagues in some of these cases.
He soon stopped attending meetings, saying "minority decisions" were being "suppressed in a manner contrary to well-established conventions observed by multi-member statutory bodies".
In December last year, Mr Lavasa in an article in The Indian Express, wrote: "The honest, however, go on regardless, perhaps driven by an inner force that borders on recklessness. A society that creates hurdles which exhaust the honest or wound them paves the path for its own perdition".
This was two months after an income tax notice was sent to his wife, Novel S Lavasa, over alleged discrepancies in filings. Sources had said information had been sought "related to foreign exchange". Mrs Lavasa said she had "paid all taxes due" and "disclosed all income" and that she was cooperating.
Mr Lavasa has a business degree from Australia and a degree in Defence and Strategic Studies from the University of Madras.
Asian Development Bank was conceived in the early 1960s as a financial institution that would be Asian in character and foster economic growth and cooperation in one poorest and developing regions in the world.
ADB helps its members and partners by giving loans, technical assistance, grants and equity investments to promote social and economic development.