New CEC supports linking of Aadhaar with voter cards

India's new Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat supported linking of Aadhaar with voter identity cards. Rawat will take over as the 22nd chief of India's Election Commission on Tuesday and he will be the CEC until December 2, 2018. Current CEC AK Jyoti will retire on January 22nd.

Speaking about the reforms being initiated by the poll authority, Rawat said that he supports linking Aadhaar to voters' identity cards as it would establish the identity before a voter enters the booth and accesses an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), according to a report by The Economic Times.

Rawat said, "The identification will be foolproof then." "I, however, don't want any change in EVMs to integrate this feature. The EVM must remain a standalone machine with no connection to any other device or to the Internet," he added. He further said that as CEC his priority would be to have a continuity of delivering free, fair and credible elections through the engagement of all stakeholders and to build consensus on poll reforms.

Rawat, a 1977-batch IAS officer from the Madhya Pradesh cadre, was appointed to the Election Commission in August 2015. Apart from being the Election Commissioner of India, Om Prakash Rawat has served in key positions for both the Union and Madhya Pradesh governments, like as, Principal Secretary (Commerce and Industries), Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Principal Secretary (Woman and Child development) Principal Secretary (Tribal Welfare), Vice Chairman of Narmada Valley Development Authority, Excise Commissioner of Madhya Pradesh, and as the District Magistrate and Collector of Narsinghpur and Indore districts in the Madhya Pradesh Government, and as the Union Public Enterprise Secretary, and as Joint Secretary in Ministry of Defence in the Union Government.