T.N. Seshan
| T. N. Seshan | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 10th Chief Election Commissioner of India | |
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In office 12 December 1990 – 11 December 1996 |
|
| Prime Minister |
V. P. Singh Chandra Shekhar P. V. Narasimha Rao Atal Bihari Vajpayee H. D. Deve Gowda |
| Preceded by | V. S. Ramadevi |
| Succeeded by | M. S. Gill |
| 18th Cabinet Secretary of India | |
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In office 27 March 1989 – 23 December 1989 |
|
| Prime Minister | Rajiv Gandhi |
| Preceded by | B. G. Deshmukh |
| Succeeded by | V. C. Pande |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan 15 December 1932 Palakkad, Madras Presidency, British India (now in Kerala, India) |
| Residence | Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Alma mater |
Madras Christian College Harvard University |
| Occupation | Indian Administrative Service |
| Awards | Ramon Magsaysay award (in 1996) |
Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan known as T. N. Seshan (retired) IAS best remembered as the man who cleaned up elections in India. He was the 10th Chief Election Commissioner of India (1990–96), who reformed elections by largely ending its malpractices in the country. and redefined the status and visibility of the Election Commission of India. An Indian Administrative Service officer, he earlier served as the 18th Cabinet Secretary of India in 1989. He won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service in 1996.
Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan was born on 15 December 1932 in a Brahmin family in Thirunellai, Palakkad district, Kerala. He completed his schooling from Basel Evangelical Mission Higher Secondary School and intermediate from Government Victoria College, Palakkad. He obtained his graduation in Physics from the Madras Christian College. He worked for three years as demonstrator at the Madras Christian college, when he passed the IAS exam. He then went to study at Harvard University on Edward S. Mason Fellowship where he earned a master's degree in public administration. (Class of 1968)
T. N. Seshan and E. Sreedharan are classmates at BEM High School and Victoria College in Palakkad. Both of them were selected for Engineering in Kakinada (Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University) however E. Sreedharan decided to pursue it, while T. N. Seshan decided to join MCC (Madras Christian College).
Seshan wanted to join the civil services like his brother T N Lakshminarayanan (who incidentally was among the toppers in the very first batch of Indian Administrative Service (IAS). In 1953, Seshan was under-aged to appear for the IAS. To test his abilities, he sat for the Indian Police Service (for which the age of appearing, then, was only 20) and stood first in India in the 1954 batch. The very next year, he appeared and successfully joined the 1955 batch of IAS, having been placed among the top rankers.
An officer of the IAS, he was Secretary of many departments in the Tamil Nadu and the union governments.
He was Cabinet Secretary, the senior most position in the Indian civil service hierarchy, and Member, Planning Commission of India, before being appointed the Chief Election Commissioner. He contested for the post of President of India in 1997 and lost to K.R. Narayanan. He is often known for his crisp one-liners, be it during his service to his superiors and ministers or while facing the media.
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