Who is Anup Chandra Pandey, the new Election Commissioner?

The former Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh, Anup Chandra Pandey, has been appointed as an Election Commissioner, filling up Sushil Chandra’s vacancy after he demitted office in April.

Pandey, 62, is a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1984 batch. In his nearly 35 years of service, Pandey has held positions at the state as well as central levels.

Before serving as the Chief Secretary of UP from July 2018 to August 2019, he was the state’s industrial development commissioner. He has also served for four years as a joint secretary at the Centre.

Pandey will join Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra and Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar ahead of the elections in Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, scheduled for next year.

Pandey graduated from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh. Along with a master’s degree in business administration from Panjab University, he also has a doctorate from Bihar’s Magadh University in ancient history.

During his tenure at the Centre, he played a key role “in introducing Abolition of Child Labour Act and ratification of ILO (Internation Labour Organisation) convention 138 & 182 on Child Labour,” as mentioned in his LinkedIn profile. It also notes that the “peaceful, transparent & incident-free conduct of Lok Sabha elections 2019” of UP was a “very big achievement” of his.