State Election Commissioners

The 73rd Amendment requires every State government to appoint a State Election Commissioner, who is responsible for conducting elections to Panchayati Raj institutions. Before this requirement existed, this task was carried out by the ordinary State administration, which functioned under the control of the State government of the day. Now, the office of the State Election Commissioner is autonomous, in a manner comparable to the Election Commission of India at the national level. It is worth being precise about what 'comparable' means here, though: the State Election Commissioner is an independent officer answerable to no one in the State government, but is not linked to, and is not under the control of, the Election Commission of India eith …