Achal Kumar Joti appointed next Chief Election Commissioner

New Delhi: Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Joti was on Tuesday appointed as the chief election commissioner (CEC) of India from 6 July.

President Pranab Mukherjee has cleared Joti’s appointment, said a press release by ministry of law and justice issued on Tuesday.

A former chief secretary of Gujarat, Joti will take over from outgoing CEC Nasim Zaidi who demits office on Wednesday.

The immediate challenge for Joti will be the upcoming presidential and vice-presidential elections which will be followed by polls in Himachal Pradesh as well as his home state, Gujarat.

“The President is pleased to appoint the senior-most election commissioner, Achal Kumar Joti as the chief election commissioner in the Election Commission,” said the official release by law ministry, adding that he will assume charge on 6 July ‘consequent upon demitting the office’ by Zaidi on 5 July.

Serving as the 21st CEC, Joti’s tenure will end in January next year. With Zaidi demitting office on Wednesday, the EC will come down to two members—Joti and election commissioner O.P. Rawat. The government is expected to soon fill up the one vacancy which will emerge with Zaidi’s exit.

A 1975 batch IAS officer, Joti had served as chief secretary of Gujarat from 2010 to 2013. He joined the EC as election commissioner on 8 May 2015 and has been the part of the top team that oversaw elections in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu amongst others.

Joti’s tenure as chief secretary was at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister of the state. Joti is known to be a “non-controversial” official who maintains a low public profile.

When the National Democratic Alliance government came to power in 2014, it was not long before speculation started about how the new prime minister would be getting his trusted aides from Gujarat, the state where he had enjoyed a 13-year long stint as CM, to the PMO. From P.K. Mishra ,who had among other posts also been principal secretary to Modi and was called to Delhi to serve the same function to Hasmukh Adhia, there have been several big names who made the move.

In May 2015, Joti too made his way to the Centre, this time as an election commissioner. Prior to this appointment, Joti had worked as the managing director, Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd.

After his retirement in 2013, he was appointed as state vigilance commissioner of Gujarat and then came the move to Delhi.

For a person who hasn’t worked at the Centre except for his stint at Kandla Port Trust where he was the chairman for about five years, being named as CEC is perhaps the most defining moment in his career, said a senior Gujarat government official who has worked closely with Joti in the past.

“He is what you may call a pucca officer who very thoroughly follows every meeting, every presentation made and does not hesitate in posing tough questions or giving tough tasks to his officials. He is seen as a non-controversial and a very quiet person,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

Joti was in news recently when Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal accused him and O.P. Rawat of bias based on their previous postings. Kejriwal’s comments came while the commission was hearing a case against 21 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs for allegedly holding offices of profit. While Rawat recused himself from all EC cases related to AAP, Joti did not.

Reputed to be soft-spoken and unassuming, Joti, according to a 2010 Times of India report, impressed Modi with his dedication and work on the ground during the CM’s one-day one-district plan under which senior officials were tasked with visiting talukas and listening to the grievances of the common man.

Maulik Pathak in Ahmedabad contributed to this story.