Who Is Anup Chandra Pandey? All About Retired IAS Appointed As New Election Commissioner

The appointment of Pandey will restore the poll panel to its full strength as a three-member commission.

Anup Chandra Pandey (Image: PTI)

New Delhi: In a latest appointment, President Ram Nath Kovind has named Anup Chandra Pandey as the new Election Commissioner (EC). In view of Sushil Chandra being elevated as the Chief Election Commissioner in April, the position of an Election Commisioner was vacant since April 13.

The appointment of Pandey will restore the poll panel to its full strength as a three-member commission. The legislative department in the law ministry said the president is pleased to appoint Anup Chandra Pandey as EC. Former Chief Election Commissioner of India SY Quraishi took to Twitter to congratulate Pandey.

"Congratulations Mr Anup Chandra PANDEY for your appointment as Election Commissioner of India. Wish you a successful tenure. May you live up to the nation’s trust," Quraishi wrote.

While Sushil Chandra is the CEC, Rajiv Kumar is the other election commissioner.

Who Is Anup Chandra Pandey?

Anup Chandra Pandey is a former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary. Pandey retired as the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh in August 2019.

He belongs to the 1984 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from Uttar Pradesh cadre and will take the position of an EC with effect from the date he assumes office. He has 37 years of administrative service experience. Pandey became Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh in 2018 and held the position till he retired in August 2019.  He is the current member of the monitoring committee in the NGT. He has held many important posts in the Uttar Pradesh government including the position of DM of many districts

At the same time, Pandey has hold the position of commissioner in many divisions in the district.

The LinkedIN profile of Anup Chandra Pandey noted the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as a “very big achievement”. “The peaceful, transparent & incident-free conduct of Lok Sabha elections 2019, where tensions between various stakeholders were very high as certainly a very big achievement,” it says.

Once he assumes office as election commissioner, the first assembly election under his watch will incidentally be that of Uttar Pradesh, his home cadre besides Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand next year.