Meet new CEC Om Prakash Rawat, the man who is referee of fair play

Those who have worked with Rawat, however, say that he was never close to any political party during his stints in the civil services, both at the state-level and the Centre

Before joining the Election Commission two years ago, Om Prakash Rawat was known as an unassuming officer who mostly went by the rule book as a civil servant. Rawat, 64, is an Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1977 batch and belongs to the Madhya Pradesh cadre. On Tuesday, he took over as India’s 22nd Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) from his predecessor AK Joti, inheriting a somewhat controversial legacy. 

Rawat was part of the Election Commission’s two contentious decisions. The first relates to breaking from the age-old tradition of announcing election dates of all poll-bound states on the same day.