All About Chief Election Commissioner

The chief election commissioner is the chief of the election commission of India, which means that he heads over it. The election commission is an essential and influential part of our Indian democracy. The conduct of free and fair elections in the country is the chief duty of the election commission, and the chief election commissioner is the head, keeping an eye on all these tasks. 

The chief election commissioner has the power over all the elections in the country involving the president, the vice president, the state legislatures, the MPs, the MLAs, etc. Not everyone has the power to become the chief election commissioner; you need to be a part of the civil services. You must be a person from the Indian administrative services to be given priority.

The last 20 Election Commissioners of India

The first Chief Election Commissioner of India was Sukumar Sen, who worked till 1958. After that, many election commissioners were appointed; they worked for their tenure and then left. The list of some of these include:

1. Dr Nagendra Singh – till 1973
2. Kalyan Sundaram – till 1966
3. S.P. Sen Verma – till 1972
4. T. Swaminathan – till 1977
5. S.L. Shakdhar – till 1982
6. R.K. Trivedi – till 1985
7. R.V.S. Peri Sastri – till 1990
8. V.S. Ramadevi – till 1990
9. T.N. Seshan – till 1996
10. M.S. Gill – till 2001
11. B.B. Tandon – till 2006
12. N. Gopalaswami – till 2009
13. Naveen Chawla – till 2010
14. S.Y. Quraishi – till 2012
15. V.S. Sampath – till 2015
16. H.S. Brahma – till 2015
17. Naim Zaidi – till 2017
18. Achal Kumar Jyoti – till 2018
19. Om Prakash Rawat – till 2018
20. Sushil Chandra – current chief of ECI

Duties of Chief election commissioner of India

The primary duties of the Chief election commissioner of India include

1. To monitor the smooth working of the ECI.
2. Ensure that all discrimination based on religion, region or caste is avoided at the election booth.
3. Transparent Conduct of elections.
4. Ensure that there is no partisanship or manipulation during the elections
5. The chief election commissioner of India prepares the list of all the active and eligible voters in the country to ensure that everyone gets the right to vote.
6. He also supervises the nomination of a candidate to take part in elections and form a political party.
7. Closely Monitoring an election campaign and checking that there is no misbehaviour of any kind. 
8. Provides information to the media about the Election coverage.
9. Keep an eye on the ECI and ensure fair counting of votes.
10. The organisation of the polling booths on the day of the election.

Compensation for the Chief election Commissioner

According to the Election commission act of 1991, the chief election commissioner gets paid the salary equivalent to the compensation of the supreme court judge. If other election commissioners are appointed, they also receive the same amount of wages.

Importance of the Chief Election Commissioner

The chief election commissioner plays a pivotal role in the management of ECI in a country and is directly linked to the smooth functioning of the ECI and the voting facility.

The importance of the Chief election commissioner can be understood because he performs the following:

1. He guides the conduct of national and state elections.
2. He monitors the work of the ECI.
3. The chief election commissioner handles the complete voting procedure on the day of polling.
4. A chief election commissioner ensures that there is no partiality with the conduct of the election and ensures that everyone gets a fair chance to exercise their right to vote.
5. He looks out for the smooth functioning of all the political parties.
6. He can also derecognise a party if they fail to follow all the fundamental protocols and maintain peace within their party.

Conclusion

The chief election commissioner is the head of the ECI. He exercises supreme power over the ECI and ensures that the elections are conducted legally. Apart from this, he also provides that no person is manipulated in any way and forced to cast a specific vote. Hence, the chief election commissioner controls the ECI and monitors its work.