India gets new Chief Election Commissioner in the Election Commission of India
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
The President appointed Sushil Chandra the senior-most Election Commissioner, as the Chief Election Commissioner in the Election Commission of India. Sushil Chandra will assume the charge of office of the Chief Election Commissioner with effect from the 13th ApriI, 2021 vice Sunil Arora consequent upon his demitting the Office of the Chief Election Commissioner on the 12th April, 2021. A notification in this regard has been issued by Legislative Department, Ministry of Law & Justice today.
Chandra was appointed as an Election Commissioner on February 14, 2019, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and worked for the successful conduct of the general elections.
He is set to demit office on May 14, 2022, and will oversee the conduct of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, and Manipur as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).
Chandra was born on May 15, 1957 and went on to pursue BTech from Roorkee University. He later pursued Law from DAV College, Dehradun. He belongs to the 1980 Batch of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS). He served the IRS for 38 years before taking charge as Election Commissioner. He was also in the Indian Engineering Service before joining the IRS.
Before his appointment in the Election Commission, Chandra was the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).
Under his leadership, CBDT in 2017 started ‘Operation Clean Money’ in a bid to curb illegal wealth and black money.
During his over two year tenure as an Election Commissioner, Chandra supervised assembly elections of more than 10 states and worked towards making the entire nomination process online. The candidate-related information is also made available in the public domain through the Affidavit Portal and Voter Helpline App on the same day when the nomination is filed.
April 12,2021
