New Delhi: Election commissioner Om Prakash Rawat has been appointed the new chief election commissioner and will succeed Achal Kumar Joti, who will step down from the post on Monday.
A 1977-batch IAS officer from the Madhya Pradesh cadre, Rawat will take charge from Tuesday. He was appointed to the Election Commission in August 2015. The 64-year-old has held several important portfolios at Centre and state level during his long career.
Prior to his appointment as Election Commissioner of India, Rawat had retired as secretary, ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises. He had earlier also served as a director in the defence ministry in 1993. During this tenure, he was deputed to South Africa in May, 1994, as United Nations election observer to oversee first post-apartheid elections in the country.
He has also served as principal secretary to Babu Lal Gaur, the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh between 2004 and 2006. He received the Prime Minister’s award in 2010 for excellence in Public Administration for his initiative “recognition of forest rights”.
Former finance secretary Ashok Lavasa has also been appointed to the Election Commission with effect from Tuesday. The appointment of the election commissioner was made as a vacancy would have arisen in the three-member poll panel after the retirement of Joti. An EC or a CEC has a tenure of six years in office or till he or she attains the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.
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