A Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) is a most important body in our Election Constitutional framework. He works under the direction and overall guidance of the Election Commission. Each state needs a Chief Electoral Officer so as to maintain maximum transparency in elections. The CEO overlooks and give advice for all the procedure and equipment required to conduct an election in a state. So, today we’ll discuss about the importance and roles of CEO Bihar.

CEO Bihar:

The Current Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar is Ajay V Nayak. He is a native of Karnataka by birth, born in 12^th April 1958. He became an Indian Administrative Service Officer in 1984 from Bihar cadre. Ajay V Nayak is a graduate and completed his pharmacy with 2^nd division. He also has an experience in Agriculture and Rural Development, Industrial Policy Planning and Development, Management of Information Technology and Public Policy and Management.

Apart from Chief Electoral Officer, there are 6 more officers. They are:

1. Additional Chief Electoral Officer 1
2. Additional Chief Electoral Officer 2
3. Joint Chief Electoral Officer
4. Deputy Chief Electoral Officer
5. Deputy Secretary
6. Deputy Election Officer & Sub-Election Officer

These Officers are appointed by the Bihar Election Commission.

Also Read: CEO Bihar complete information and helpdesk.

Importance and Functions:

The CEO Bihar is the nodal officer who is in charge of ensuring implementation of all the provisions of electoral laws in the state. The office of the CEO Bihar conduct elections, by-elections, and referenda in the state. Apart from that he has many other roles to play too.

CEO Bihar has the role to reach out to the people of the state to make sure that better services are provided to them w.r.t. Electoral Rolls; Examining the documents for new registrations, corrections (spelling mistakes, mistakes in D.O.B etc.); doing thorough verification; issuing new, corrected, or duplicate Voter Id card; digitizing maps to indicate areas of the polling stations and their respective distances; ensuring sufficient men and material resources to be in stock before the day of the elections. The CEO is also responsible to look after all financial expenses occurred during an election. The maintenance of law and order during the polling day depends largely on the Chief Electoral Officer.

The CEO Bihar ensures smooth communication between the different departments of elections and the citizens/voters within the state for all the doubts, or queries regarding upcoming Elections. The Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar also watches the actions of District Electoral Officers and directs them accordingly.

Visit Official Website of CEO Bihar for more info.

Role of CEO Bihar before, during and After Elections:

The CEO gets into the task of ensuring compliance of some vital activities including meeting with political parties, addressing their concerns over revision of rolls and briefing the media to ensure awareness among the people regarding it. For ensuring availability of necessary material such as rubber stamps and indelible ink to identifying requirement of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and informing the Election Commission. The Election Commission depends on the CEO to receive daily reports regarding the proper conduction of Model code of Conduct. It’s the job of the CEO to make sure that the complaint monitoring system is in place and working normally. Also, he is the sole body who is responsible for declaring holiday on the polling day and ensures the availability of poll observers in the state.

Review of Law and Order in the state during an election is his responsibility. One of the most critical aspects of his role is to maintain interstate coordination and sealing of borders as needed. He assesses security and set up a plan of the availability and requirement of a state police force and security forces and sends the requirement to the Election Commission for their deployment. He delivers to assure whether the security deployment plan is in conformity with the directives set up by the Election Commission of Bihar. He also ensures that all the Helpline and the Complaint Cell are actively working in different places in Bihar.

The primary responsibility of the CEO is to inform ECI about the commencement of the poll at scheduled time and send statutory reports in the prescribed format to ECI. He also ensures arrangements at election booths and demonstration of EVMs in every district. CEO Bihar also has to ensure the proper sealing of Electronic Voting Machines and all the election papers.

The CEO is the person responsible for informing district authorities about the date, time and place of counting. He has to ensure that candidates and their polling agents are informed about it. When it comes to keeping a tab on the election expenses of candidates, the CEO ensures some of the crucial actions at the level of the district electoral officer or the returning officer. It includes the maintenance of day-to-day details of expenditure incurred from the date of nomination till the announcement of results.

Thus becoming a CEO of Bihar or of any other state is not an easy task. We hope now with this information, you are aware of the importance of CEO Bihar and his roles.