Know the three election commissioners who have successfully conducted 2014 LS polls

New Delhi: Conducting free, fair and peaceful elections in a country like India is not an easy job. Yet our Election Commission has succeeded in ensuring successful completion of the entire election process that spread across 9 phases. There were certain incidents of violence in addition to reports of booth capturing from a few states but more or less it was a peaceful election. Of course, there were controversies like Modi not getting the permission to do a rally in Varanasi, inflammatory speeches made by Amit Shah of BJP, Imran Masood of Congress and Azam Khan of SP but these things do happen in a vibrant and evolving democracy like India. Nobody can take anything away from the three election commissioners who have made India proud of its democratic set up by successfully conducting the largest festival of Indian democracy.Let's have a look at the three election commissioners who deserve kudos for successfully discharging their duties:1. V S Sampath (Chief Election Commissioner)Veeravalli Sundaram Sampath (V S Sampat) is the 18th CEC (Chief Election Commissioner) of India. He succeeded S Y Quraishi as CEC on 11 June, 2012. A 1973-batch IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh cadre, Sampat was born on January 16, 1950.In his early career in the state of Andhra Pradesh, Sampath was District Collector of many AP districts from 1975 to 1986. Sampat himself has admitted that his stint as the District Collector gave him a strong grounding in public administration and policy implementation at the grassroots level.From 1986 to 1989, Sampath headed several state owned financial institutions and federations. Between 1990 and 2004, Sampath moved to the upper echelons of the state administration, wherein he held several challenging portfolios like Secretary in Agriculture Department and Principal Secretary in Energy Department.Later on , Sampat moved over to central deputation and in 2005, he was appointed as Director General, National Institute of Rural Development. Subsequently, he held the post of Secretary, Chemicals and Petrochemicals. Sampath joined as Election Commissioner on April 21, 2009 after N Gopalaswami demitted office during the course of general elections in 2009. On 11 June, 2012, he was made the CEC .He will continue as CEC till 16 January 2015 when he turns 65, the retirement age.2. H S Brahma (Election Commissioner)Hari Shankar Brahma (H.S. Brahma) assumed charge as Election Commissioner of India on 25th August, 2010. He is retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of 1975 batch of Andhra Pradesh State cadre. He retired on 30th April, 2010 as Secretary, Ministry of Power, Government of India before joining the Election Commission. He is the second person from the North-East to become an Election Commissioner, after J. M. Lyngdoh.Born on 19th April, 1950, he completed his Post Graduation in Political Science from Gauhati University (Assam) and graduated from St. Edmund's College, Shillong. He did his schooling from Don Bosco School, Guwahati.He will continue in office till April 18, 2015 when he turns 65.3. Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi (Election Commissioner)Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi is a retired IAS officer of 1976 batch from the Uttar Pradesh cadre. He assumed charge as Election Commissioner of India on 07th August 2012.Dr Zaidi superannuated from IAS as Secretary to the Government of India in Ministry of Civil Aviation on 31.07.2012. Amongst numerous contributions, Dr. Zaidi was instrumental in formulating Financial Restructuring and Turn Around Plan of Air India (AI) and also setting up the Dharmadhikari Committee to ensure merger process of AI.He has also served as the Director General of Civil Aviation in the past.Dr. Zaidi possesses a Master's degree in Public Administration from Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and has been a Mason Fellow for Public Policy at Harvard Institute for International Development. He has a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Finance from Indian Institute of Finance and holds doctorate in Bio-Chemistry. Dr. Zaidi has published several papers in scientific and administrative journals.