Odisha Chief Electoral Officer R Santhana Gopalan applied for voluntary retirement on Wednesday, citing personal and health reasons unrelated to the electoral roll revision.
Gopalan oversaw the Special Intensive Revision that published Odisha's revised electoral roll of 31.6 million voters on September 21 amid opposition voter deletion protests.
A 2001-batch IAS officer with about 18 months of service remaining, Gopalan served as CEO since July 2024 after previously working with the Unique Identification Authority of India.