Amidst the ongoing election festival, the Election Commission of India will hail the new chief, Sushil Chandra tomorrow. Mr. Chandra will take charge of the office on Tuesday and would serve as the new Election Commissioner of India for a little under a year before his retirement on May 14, 2022.
Notably, Mr. Chandra would replace Sunil Arora as India's polling chief after the latter has been denounced for failing to apply the rules evenly and fairly in the current ongoing elections.
In February 2019, Mr. Chandra was appointed as the Election Commissioner, weeks before the Lok Sabha elections. During his present term in the office, Mr. Chandra would supervise the polls in five states including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Uttrakhand, and Manipur.
Sushil Chandra has also served as a Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) before being elected as the polling chief lately. He had worked on 10 state elections earlier.
It is pertinent to mention, outgoing CEC Sunil Arora is being criticized for not handling the elections remarkably in few states. He has failed to apply the rules equally to the ruling BJP and opposition parties.
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Earlier this week, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi lashed out at the CEC for misconduct during Assam elections after news broke that election officials transported EVM in a BJP candidate's car and the sudden shortening of ban length imposed on BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has been banned to campaign for 24 hours by the outgoing CEC for inciting the mob, has also accused the apex polling body of not paying heed to the statements of PM Modi and other senior leaders while campaigning.
However, Sunil Arora has conducted first major elections amidst the ongoing Covid pandemic in 2019 in Bihar Assembly Elections.