The Union Law Ministry on Sunday appointed seniormost Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat as the next Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).
- Om Prakash Rawat will assume the charge of office of the Chief Election Commissioner with effect from the 23rd January, 2018 as the incumbent A.K. Joti will retire on 22nd January, 2018.
- Former Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa was appointed as Election Commissioner, a position currently held by Om Prakash Rawat.
- Mr Rawat will have a tenure of almost a year till his retirement in December 2018.
- Sunil Arora, presently the second seniormost Election Commissioner will be the CEC during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections after Rawat’s retirement.
- Mr. Ashok Lavasa will be the CEC after Mr. Arora.
- Election Commissioners have a fixed term of six years but have to step down if they reach 65 years of age before their term expires.
- Om Prakash Rawat will oversee elections in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland scheduled next month. Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh will also hold elections under his tenure.
- Mr. Rawat is a retired 1977 batch IAS officer belonging to Madhya Pradesh cadre.
- He has also served as the Public Enterprise Secretary of India.
- He had also served as principal secretary to Babu Lal Gaur, the former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh between 2004 and 2006.
- Mr Rawat is a post graduate in Social Development Planning and has been a recipient of the Madhya Pradesh Award for recognition of forest rights in 2009.
- Mr. Lavasa, before retiring as the finance secretary, served in the Ministries of Environment and Forests, Civil Aviation, Power, Home and Finance at the Centre and in the department of industries, tourism and public relations in his home cadre of Haryana.
