Hari Shankar Brahma appointed as the New Chief Election Commissioner

Hari Shankar Bramha was appointed as the new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) by President Pranab Mukherjee on 15 January 2016.

Brahma, the senior-most Election Commissioner in the Election Commission of India succeeds V.S. Sampath.

Sampath demitted the office on 15 January 2015 after attaining the age of 65, the upper age limit under the Constitution for holding the post.

Brahma (64) will assume the charge of the office of Chief Election Commissioner with effect from 16 January 2015. He will have a small tenure of three months till 19 April 2015, when he turns 65, the upper age limit for the post.

About Harishankar Brahma
• He is a 1975 IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre
• He hails from Assam and has served as the former Union power secretary
• He was appointed as an Election Commissioner on 25 August 2010

After J.M. Lyngdoh, Brahma is the second officer from northeast to be appointed to this post.

About Election Commission
Election Commission of India is a permanent Constitutional Body. It was established in accordance with the Constitution on 25 January 1950.

Originally the commission had only a Chief Election Commissioner, but now it is a three-member body, including the CEC and two election commissioners.

For the first time two additional Commissioners were appointed on 16 October 1989 but they had a very short tenure till 1 January 1990. Later, on 1 October 1993 two additional Election Commissioners were appointed. The concept of multi-member Commission has been in operation since then, with decision making power by majority vote.