Ashok Lavasa
Ashok Lavasa.

Sitting Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa has been appointed as the Vice President of the Asian Development Bank. The development comes months before Lavasa could have been appointed as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). Lavasa would have retired as the CEC in October 2022.

Ashok Lavasa will be looking after the Private Sector Operations and Public-Private Partnerships. He succeeds Diwakar Gupta, who is currently Philippines-based ADB's Vice President for Private Sector Operations and Public-Private Partnerships. Gupta's 5-year term ends on August 31st.

The Asian Development Bank appoints a vice president for a term of three years, which can be extended by another two years. The ADB president heads a management team which comprises six vice presidents.

Lavasa, who still has more than two years left in his term at the Election Commission of India, had dissented against clean shots given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah for the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) violations during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.