New Delhi : Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra on Tuesday took charge as the 24th Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India today, replacing Sunil Arora, who retired a day earlier.
Chandra was appointed as an Election Commissioner on 14 February 2019. Alongside Arora and previous Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, Chandra is credited with the successful organization of Lok Sabha elections of 2019.
During his term in office, Sushil Chandra will oversee the Assembly elections are likely to take place in the states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur. Chandra's term will end on May 14, 2022.
President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday appointed Chandra as the new CEC as he is the senior-most election commissione, ahead of Rajiv Kumar.There were only two members in the poll panel.
Chandra will oversee the completion of the ongoing Assembly elections in West Bengal, where four out of the eight rounds of voting have been completed.
The last stage will happen on April 29, trailed by the counting of votes and declaration of results on May 2.
During his tenure as an Election Commissioner, Chandra supervised assembly elections of more than 10 states and worked towards making the entire nomination process online.
Earlier, Chandra had served as the chairperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). Under him, CBDT launched "Operation Clean Money" in 2017 in a bid to curb illegal wealth and black money.