EC announces Lok Sabha poll schedule: Team in charge of conducting election has huge task on its hands

The Election Commission of India on Sunday announced elections for the 17th Lok Sabha. The elections will take place in seven phases, starting from 11 April and end on 19 May. Counting of votes will take place on 23 May.

With the announcement of the election schedule, the Model Code of Conduct comes into effect. This means that every political party as well as their candidates have to follow the guidelines provided by the Election Commission.

Here is a look at the three-member team of the Election Commission of India which will be responsible for conducting the Lok Sabha Election 2019.

Sunil Arora

Sunil Arora, the Chief Election Commissioner, is a 1980 batch Rajasthan cadre IAS officer. He assumed charge of the post of the Chief Election Commissioner on 2 December, 2018. He is expected to be in his position till April 2021, when he will superannuate. Prior to taking over the top job, he was one of the two Election Commissioners of India, a position he had held since 1 September, 2017. According to the Election Commission of India , Arora brings with him at least 36 years of leadership experience. Arora has also served as a secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting as well as the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. Arora served as the Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Airlines from 2000-2005. During this tenure, he is credited for having brought far-reaching policy and administrative reforms in the former state carrier.

The 2019 Lok Sabha election will be Arora’s first big challenge as the Chief Election Commissioner. In fact, some experts also expressed concern about Arora’s experience in handling the Lok Sabha election. While Arora has handled only 11 Assembly elections before the Lok Sabha elections, former Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath had handled 25 Assembly election before conducting the last Lok Sabha elections.

Ashok Lavasa

Lavasa, a 1980 batch Haryana-cadre IAS officer has been an Election Commissioner of India since 23 January 2018.

He retired from the IAS in October 2017 as the Union Finance Secretary. According to the Election Commission website , Lavasa has also served as Union Secretary Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and Ministry of Civil Aviation in the past. It was under his tenure as the Union Finance Secretary that the Goods and Services Tax was introduced while the Railway Budget was merged with the Union Budget.

Lavasa has been at the helm of eight Assembly Elections since taking charge as one of the Election Commissioners of India. Lavasa, the senior-most commissioner after Arora, will also be handling the Lok Sabha election for the first time.

Sushil Chandra

Sushil Chandra belongs to the 1980 batch of the Indian Revenue Service. Chandra assumed charge as one of the two Election Commissioners of India on 15 February 2019. He is the least experienced among the top three commissioners of the Election Commission of India, having not organised any Assembly election until now.

According to the Election Commission , Chandra was posted as the Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) before taking over as an Election Commissioner. During the demonetisation drive, Chandra was instrumental in fighting tax evasion as well as clamping down on benami transactions by implementing the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988.