Ex-UP Chief Secretary Anup Pandey is Election Commissioner

Anup Chandra Pandey, former chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh, has been appointed as the new Election Commissioner.

With his appointment, the Election Commission of India has been restored to its full strength of a three-member team. After Sushil Chandra’s elevation as Chief Election Commissioner in April, the post of one election commissioner had fallen vacant, the other EC being former Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar.

The appointment of Pandey, a 1984 batch retired officer of the UP cadre, as the new Election Commissioner comes months ahead of the next round of assembly elections. Incidentally, among the five states that will go to poll in January 2022 , is also UP where Pandey has spent the bulk of his career.


The new EC’s LinkedIn profile lists out his successful negotiation of ‘complex problems ranging from law & order issues to effective implementation of various development schemes’ besides the ‘peaceful, transparent & incident-free conduct of Lok Sabha elections 2019, where tensions between various stakeholders were very high’.

Currently serving as Member, National Green Tribunal - U.P. Oversight Committee, Pandey steered major showcase events and projects for the Yogi Adityanath government in his stint as CS from June 2018 until his retirement in August 2019.