Om Prakash Rawat appointed new CEC, Ashok Lavasa made Election Commissioner
Lavasa is also appointed as an Election Commissioner
Election commissioner Om Prakash Rawat will take over as chief election commissioner (CEC) on January 23, news agency ANI has reported.
The 64-year-old former IAS officer will succeed Achal Kumar Joti, the incumbent CEC. He has previously held various portfolios at the Centre and in the states. He was also deputed to South Africa in May 1994 as the United Nations’ election observer to oversee the first post-apartheid elections there. Former finance secretary Ashok Lavasa has been appointed the new election commissioner.
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 on Monday.
Sunil Arora is the other election commissioner.
Om Prakash Rawat was on Sunday appointed the next chief election commissioner, the Union law ministry said, a day before the present incumbent Achal Kumar Joti demits charge.
Former finance secretary Ashok Lavasa was also appointed as an election commissioner to fill up the vacancy that would have arisen in the three-member Election Commission after Joti’s retirement tomorrow.
Sunil Arora is the other commissioner in the poll body.
Rawat will take over as the CEC on January 23, a law ministry notification said.
His tenure will end in December this year and Arora, the senior most commissioner after the CEC, is expected to take over as the head of the poll panel as per convention.
Arora would retire in April, 2021, and would oversee the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as the CEC. Lavasa would demit office in October, 2022 and would be the CEC after Arora.
An EC or CEC has a tenure of six years. But if he turns 65 before that, he demits office.
Born on December 2, 1953, Rawat is a former Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer. His appointment will come into effect from the day he assumes office, a law ministry statement said here.
Rawat also served as secretary, department of public enterprises in the ministry of heavy industries. Earlier in 1993, he served as a director in the defence ministry.
He also served as principal secretary to Babu Lal Gaur, the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh between 2004 and 2006.
An awardee of state government’s ‘recognition of forest rights’ in 2009, Rawat did M.SC in social development planning in 1989 in the United Kingdom.
Lavasa, besides his stint in the finance ministry, was with the ministries of environment and forest, civil aviation, power, home, finance at the Centre and industries, tourism and public relations in Haryana, his cadre.