Bhubaneswar: Ahead of Bijepur Assembly bypoll scheduled on February 24 in Bargarh district, the Election Commission of India appointed Surendra Kumar as the new Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Odisha replacing DN Gupta.

The appointment of Kumar as the CEO has been informed to Odisha government in a gazette notification.

The 1993 batch IAS officer Surendra Kumar is currently serving as the principal secretary in ST and SC Welfare department and additional charge as the principal secretary of Information & Public Relation (I&PR) department.

Following the appointment by the EC, the state government is likely to effect a major reshuffle in the IAS cadre.

Last week, the EC had asked the state government to recommend the name of three senior IAS officers for the appointment of CEO.

Acting on the directive, the government had recommended two more names apart from Surendra Kumar. They were Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare secretary Vir Vikram Yadav and Revenue Divisional Commissioner (northern division) DV Swami for the post.