Hari Shankar Brahma is new Chief Election Commissioner

NEW DELHI: Election Commissioner Hari Shankar Brahma was today elevated as the Chief Election Commissioner. He will assume charge tomorrow after present incumbent VS Sampath demitted office today on attaining the age of 65 years.

"The President has appointed Hari Shankar Bramha, the senior-most Election Commissioner in the Election Commission of India as the new Chief Election Commissioner. Shri Brahma will assume the charge of the office of Chief Election Commissioner with effect from tomorrow...," a Law Ministry statement said here.

The convention is to appoint the senior-most among the Election Commissioners as the Chief Election Commissioner.

After Brahma's appointment, government will set in motion the process to appoint an Election Commissioner to fill a vacancy in the three-member body.

A 1975-batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, Brahma (64), who hails from Assam, will have a tenure of slightly over three months till April 19 when he turns 65, the upper age limit for the post under the Constitution.

Brahma was the Union Power Secretary before his induction into the Election Commission. He assumed charge as one of the three Election Commissioners on August 25, 2010.

After J M Lyndogh, Brahma has become the second officer from the northeast to be appointed to this post.