Indian IRS diplomat Sushil Chandra is appointed as Chief Election Commissioner of the Election Commission. The 63-year-old CEC will oversee the last 4 phases of West Bengal Assembly Elections. Chandra assumed the charge as India’s new CEC after Sunil Arora resigned from his post on Monday, April 12th.

The official notification from the Election Commission said, “In pursuance of clause (2) of Article 324 of the Constitution, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Sushil Chandra as the Chief Election Commissioner with effect from the 13th April, 2021.” According to Election Commission, Mr. Chandra is credited to have made the monitoring of election expenditure by EC stricter.

A press release by the EC says, “He has constantly emphasized the concept of inducement-free elections and it has become an important aspect of monitoring the electoral process in all ongoing and forthcoming elections.”

The 63-year-old diplomat from Indian Revenue Services will oversee the upcoming elections that are to be held in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand. But before that, he will be focusing on overseeing the last 4 phases of the ongoing West Bengal Assembly Elections.

Mr. Chandra is the second IRS officer who will be heading the Election Commission. Prior to him, Mr. S Krishnamurthy was appointed to head the poll panel back in 2004 during the Lok Sabha Elections. Mr. S. Krishnamurthy was the 13th Chief Election Commissioner of India and the first ever IRS officer to have held that position.

Mr. Chandra graduated as a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee and further did a LLB from Dehradun. He belongs to the 1980 batch of the IRS and has been serving as the Election Commissioner since 2019. Moreover, he has in the past served as Income Tax Commissioner for International Taxation in Delhi, the Director General of Investigation, Mumbai and Gujarat.

Mr. Chandra comes to lead the Election Commission during a time when the election body is being blamed for being partial to the BJP and being harsh to TMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee.

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6 Things to know about Sushil Chandra, India’s 24th Chief Election Commissioner

1) Mr. Chandra will be the 24th head of Election Commission. He has been serving as Election Commissioner since 2019 and is credited to have overseen the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

2) He was involved in the organization of the Assembly Elections that took place in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu. The counting of which is scheduled for May 2.

3) Mr. Chandra was also appointed as the chairman of CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes). During his stint as the CBDT chairman, he oversaw “Operation Clean Money”. The initiative was kick started by CBDT to track, seize and curb the flow of black money. The initiative e-verified large cash-deposits made between 9th November to 30th December 2016 (a few months after PM Modi announced demonetization of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes.

4) Mr. Chandra is an avid advocate of fair usage of technology. According to the Election Commission, he has overseen successful implementation of applications to make electoral processes easier and accessible.

5) Mr. Chandra will head the Election Commission as Chief Election Commissioner till May 14, 2022. This means that in his term he’s most likely to oversee the elections that are going to take place in Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand.

6) He has also been part of electoral practices exchange among other Electoral Bodies across the world. Mr. Chandra took part as the International Election Observer during the Presidential Election Process in Kazakhstan in 2019. Moreover, he was invited by the Commonwealth Trinity College, UK for the 18th Cambridge Conference on Electoral Democracy. Further, Mr. Chandra also attended the 2nd Electoral Studies Program in Bali.