Former Gujarat Chief Secretary Achal Kumar Joti Takes Over as CEC

New Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Joti.

New Delhi: Achal Kumar Joti takes over as the 21st Chief Election Commissioner of India on Thursday. The former Gujarat chief secretary is assuming office at a time when the commission is in the middle of a massive overhaul of the electoral process, moving from just EVM to VVPAT-linked EVM.

Ironically, the man who introduced e-procurement in Gujarat in the wake of strong opposition in 2006, will be responsible for bringing paper trail back to the electoral process. The move was done to ensure greater transparency during the polls.

He is a Gujarat cadre officer who retired as Gujarat chief secretary in 2013 when Modi was the CM. The 1975 batch India Administrative Services officer will have a short stint as CEC and will retire in January 2018. A CEC or an EC can have a tenure of six years or hold office till the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.

During his tenure, Joti will oversee the assembly polls in the key state of Gujarat, and Himachal Pradesh. The other key issues which he will have to preside over is the office of profit case of 21 AAP MLAs and the feud over various factions of the AIADMK over the party symbol. His appointment comes at a time when the Aam Aadmi Party has made allegations of partiality on the Election Commission.

But his greatest challenge would be the implementation of the ambitious programme of bringing paper trail back to the electoral process. The Union Cabinet, in April, had cleared the purchase of 16,15,000 units of the voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) to work as additions to the electronic voting machine (EVM) after a request by the Election Commission. This has been the demand of most political parties that were part of the all-party meet called by the Election Commission.

A day before Joti assumed office, the Supreme Court questioned procedure of the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners. The apex court asked why there wasn’t a law or statute to appoint officers in such an important institution.

The court also said it should be ensured that the Election Commission remains neutral to all political parties.

The government is expected to appoint one more Election Commissioner to fill up the vacancy caused by Zaidi’s retirement. Om Prakash Rawat is the other Election Commissioner in the poll panel.