On 26th November, 2018 Sunil Arora, who is the senior-most commissioner in the poll panel, has been appointed as the new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) by President Ram Nath Kovind. Arora will take charge as the CEC on December 2 by replacing current CEC OP Rawat, who retires on December 1. Mr Arora was appointed to the election body in September last year. A 1980-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, Arora was the skill development secretary before he was appointed as the top bureaucrat in the I&B Ministry. He has also worked in ministries and departments such as Finance, Textiles and Planning Commission and was also CMD of Indian Airlines for five years besides working as the principal secretary to the CM of Rajasthan from 2005-2