President RN Kovind is said to have cleared the appointment of election commissioner Sunil Arora as the next Chief Election Commissioner. He is slated to take over as CEC on December 2, a day after incumbent Om Prakash Rawat retires.

The appointment of Arora, a former 1980 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, to the top post is in line with the convention of the seniormost election commissioner being anointed as CEC.

Arora was appointed as election commissioner in September 2017. He will have a nearly two-and-a-half-year tenure as CEC, with the General Election 2019 to be conducted under his stewardship.

Arora has served in several key positions as a bureaucrat, including as information and broadcasting secretary, secretary in the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship and chairman and managing director of Indian Airlines.

In Rajasthan, besides district postings in Dholpur, Alwar, Nagaur and Jodhpur, he was secretary to the chief minister during 1993-1998 and then principal secretary to chief minister (2005- 2008).

Arora retired in April 2016, following which he was appointed as an advisor to Prasar Bharti and then as director general & CEO of the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs.#casansaar (Source - Times of India)