Harishankar Brahma (born 19 April 1950) served as 19th

Chief Election Commissioner of India The Chief Election Commissioner of India heads the Election Commission of India, a body constitutionally empowered to conduct free and fair elections to the national and state legislatures and of President and Vice-President. This power of th ...

. He is a retired I.A.S. officer of 1975 batch from the

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

cadre Mr. Brahma, who retired as the Union Power Secretary in April 2010, held office till 18 April 2015. He is second person from the North-East to become an Election Commissioner, after J. M. Lyngdoh.

Early life and education

Born in a

Bodo Bodo may refer to: Ethnicity * Boro people, an ethno-linguistic group mainly from Northwest Assam, India * Bodo-Kachari people, an umbrella group from Nepal, India and Bangladesh that includes the Bodo people Culture and language * Boro cu ...

family in Gossaigaon,

Kokrajhar district Kokrajhar district is an administrative district in Bodoland Territorial Region of Assam. It is predominantly inhabited by the Boro tribe. The district has its headquarters located at Kokrajhar Town and occupies an area of . It has two civil s ...

, Assam on 19 April 1950, he completed his post graduation in Political Science from

Gauhati University Gauhati University, also known as GU, is a Collegiate university, collegiate public state university located in Guwahati, Assam, India. It was established on 26 January 1948 under the provisions of an Act enacted by the Assam Legislative Assem ...

and graduated from St. Edmund's College, Shillong. He did his schooling from Don Bosco School, Guwahati. He is a 1975

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...

officer belonging to the

cadre

Career

Harishankar Brahma has held various senior level posts in the Government of India and State governments of India, State Government prior to the present posting. Before retiring as Secretary from the Ministry of Power (India), Ministry of Power, Shri Brahma held posts such as Joint Secretary (Border Management) for more than four years and completed almost all the border fencing and other border infrastructural work on Indo-Pak – Indo-Bangladesh border. He also worked as Special Secretary & Additional Secretary in National Disaster Management Authority (Ministry of Home Affairs (India), Ministry of Home Affairs). He was the Member-Secretary of the State Electricity Board, Andhra Pradesh and also worked as: * District Collector & Magistrate for 4 years; * Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad for 3 and a half years; * Commissioner (Transport) & Ex-officio Secretary (Transport, Road & Building), Government of Andhra Pradesh for 2 and a half years; * Commissioner & Ex-officio Secretary (Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs) for 5 years; and * Principal Secretary (Environment, Forest, Science & Technology), Government of Andhra Pradesh. He was appointed as the election commissioner in August 2010. He has overseen two Lok Sabha elections and at least one round of Assembly elections in every state.

Views on 2012 Assam violence

In an article in The Indian Express on 28 July 2012, he blamed illegal immigration in India, illegal immigration from Bangladesh for the 2012 Assam violence. He mentioned that even Election Commission is faced with this problem by saying, "Even the Election Commission of India is not immune to this problem. It has to tackle the problem of D-Voters (doubtful voters), numbering approximately 1.5 lakh, while preparing the electoral rolls of Assam. The subject matter is sub-judice. This also poses a very serious security threat to the country. It is advisable that these pending cases lying in various courts and tribunals be disposed of quickly and within a definite timeframe. People who are found to be illegal migrants by these tribunals should be deported. Unless this basic issue of illegal migration into the country is resolved, the problem is bound to recur from time to time and in place to place."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brahma, Harishankar 1950 births Living people Chief Election Commissioners of India Politicians from Guwahati Don Bosco schools alumni Bodo people