Sunil Arora retires as CEC, supervised conduct of 2019 LS election, several state polls
Apr 12, 2021
New Delhi (India), April 12: Sunil Arora, who demitted office on Monday after serving as Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) for over two years, supervised the conduct of 2019 Lok Sabha elections and also several state elections during his tenure.
He was given a warm farewell by his colleagues.
Arora took charge as Chief Election Commissioner on December 2, 2018. Before that, he served as Election Commissioner from September 1, 2017, to December 1, 2018, and was associated with the conduct of elections in several states.
As CEC, he supervised the conduct of election to the 17th Lok Sabha besides assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim.
He has also supervised arrangements for the present round of assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and West Bengal. Except for West Bengal, polling has been completed in the three other states and a UT.
West Bengal is seeing an eight-phased election and the results of all states will be declared on May 2.
A former IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, Arora held several posts at the Centre and states. As Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry secretary, he spearheaded several initiatives including restoration and preservation of feature and non-feature films through digitisation.
He was also secretary in the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and steered the formulation and design of the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 and established the National Skill Development Mission.
He also led the design and implementation of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).
Arora led the administrative and policy reforms to revitalise the then Indian Airlines as its Chairman & Managing Director from 2000 to 2005, the first two years of which overlapped with his tenure as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Indian Airlines registered a net profit during 2003-04 and 2004-05 after many years.
Arora was joint secretary in the Civil Aviation ministry when an Indian Airlines plane was hijacked and taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan.
As Joint Secretary, Arora played a key role in implementing the government's decision to deploy CISF for security purposes at airports.
Arora was the Principal Staff Officer of Chief Minister, Rajasthan from 2005-2009 as well as from 1993-1998 and held district postings from 1985 to 1993.
After his superannuation from civil services in April 2016, he was appointed Advisor to Prasar Bharti.
As Election Commissioner, he was associated with the conduct of elections of the state Assemblies in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Karnataka.
