The Election Commission is understood to have cleared the name of senior IAS officer N Sivasailam for the post of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Karnataka.

CEC N Gopalaswami is understood to have approved the name of the officer after the State government appealed to him to reconsider the earlier appointment of Shobha Nambisan for the post. Nambisan had declined the post citing personal reasons.

The vacancy arose after incumbent R Ramaseshan had put in his papers and with the EC in the mood to hold elections before May end, it had to hurry to appoint a new person. It chose Nambisan who is one of the seniormost officers in the state. However, she  backed out as according to sources, she had not taken up major election responsibility earlier. This left the EC to decide between Sivasailam, known as an “election veteran” among the IAS circles for conducting several elections and Subir Harisingh.