Naveen Mahajan, a 1997-batch IAS officer has been appointed as the chief electoral officer and ex officio principal secretary to election department replacing Praveen Gupta, who held the post for almost four years conducting assembly elections followed by general elections.
The posting of Mahajan is till further orders.
Naveen Mahajan was serving as chairman and managing director of Rajasthan Warehousing Corporation from February 2024. In last three years, Mahajan has been transferred six times.
“For a result oriented officer like Mahajan, such frequent transfers look strange. For next four years there would be hardly any action in election department. However, state government may replace him in between if his services would be required,” said a retired IAS officer.
The Rajasthan government had sent panel of names of three IAS officers – one each from 1995 batch, 1997 batch and 1998 batch. The election commission selected 1997-batch officer for this post on recommendations of the state government.
The immediate challenge for Naveen Mahajan would be to conduct by-elections on five assembly seats, which have been vacated by winning candidates of Lok Sabha election. Brijendra Ola who had won Lok Sabha election from Jhunjhunu has vacated his assembly seat of Jhunjhunu while Murari Lal Meena who was MLA from Dausa has vacated his seat after winning Dausa Lok Sabha seat. Similarly, Harish Meena, MP from Tonk-SawaiMadhopur has vacated Tonk assembly seat and Hanuman Beniwal who defeated Jyoti Mirdha, both in assembly and Lok Sabha elections from Nagaur has vacated his assembly seat. Rajkumar Roat who has won the Banswara parliamentary seat has vacated Chorasi assembly seat.
Who is Naveen Mahajan?
Naveen Mahajan has an administrative experience spanning 27 years. He had held important positions like district collector – Jaipur, Jodhpur and Ajmer; managing director RIICO; secretary local bodies and principal secretary water resources among other portfolios.
An avid tennis player, Mahajan has been champion nine-time champion in CS challenger Cup. A fitness freak, Mahajan never misses his workout.
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