Om Prakash Rawat yesterday assumed charge as 22nd Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India succeeding A.K. Joti. Joti demitted the office day before yesterday after completing his tenure.
Born on 2nd December, 1953, Rawat a former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of 1977 batch retired from active service in December, 2013. He served in various capacities in his cadre Madhya Pradesh as also the Centre including the post of Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Department of Public Enterprises from 3rd April 2012 to 31st December 2013.
Rawat has served as Election Commissioner since 14th August 2015. During his tenure as Election Commissioner, State Assembly elections in the States of Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakand, Manipur, Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat were conducted successfully. Besides this, Presidential as well as Vice-Presidential elections were also conducted during his tenure as EC. Under his tenure at Election Commission, there will be General Elections to State Legislative Assemblies of Karnataka, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, including the ongoing General Election to Legislative Assemblies of three states i.e. Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura.
After assumption of charge, Rawat spoke about the priorities of the Commission and said that the Commission shall pursue vigorously its commitment and maintain its standard to hold free, fair, inclusive and credible elections throughout the country.
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