Former bureaucrat Hari Shankar Brahma would be taking over as chief election commissioner (CEC) from V S Sampath, who is set to retire on Thursday.
He assumed charge as one of the three election commissioners of India on August 25, 2010.
According to sources, the government recommended the name of 64-year-old Brahma to head the poll panel, forgoing the convention of considering the senior-most election commissioner.
However, no official announcement has been made about Brahma’s appointment as CEC.
Brahma, who is originally from Assam, is a 1975-batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre and had served as Union power secretary.
After J M Lyndogh, Brahma would become the second officer from the north-east to be appointed as head of the Election Commission. The former bureaucrat went to Don Bosco School, Guwahati, graduated from St Edmund’s College, Shillong, and did his post-graduation in political science from Gauhati University in Assam.
Earlier, he held various senior-level posts in the Centre and as well as in Andhra Pradesh. Before retiring as secretary from the Ministry of Power, Brahma was a joint secretary for border management for more than four years.
During his tenure, he completed almost all border fencing and other infrastructural work along India’s borders with Pakistan as well as Bangladesh. He also worked as special secretary and additional secretary in the National Disaster Management Authority.
Sampath, who will be demitting office on Thursday, on Wednesday made a farewell call to President Pranab Mukherjee. The election commission took several initiatives to hold free and fair elections in the country under Sampath’s leadership, with the voter turnout significantly increasing and hitting an all-time high in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
The general elections witnessed a voting percentage of 66.4 as against 58.19 in 2009. Sampath also presided over the conduct of the presidential and vice-presidential elections in 2012.
Over four decades of leadership experience in administration as well as diverse social and economic posts, Sampath was part of two Lok Sabha elections and several assembly polls during his close to six-year stint in the commission.
DH News Service