, Assam and graduated from St. Edmund’s College, Shillong. He did his schooling from Don Bosco School, Guwahati.
Harishankar Brahma has held various senior level posts in the Government of India and State Government prior to the present posting. Before retiring as Secretary from the Ministry of Power, Shri Brahma held posts such as Joint Secretary (Border Management) for more than four years and completed almost all the border fencing and other border infrastructural work on Indo-Pak and Indo-Bangladesh border. He also worked as Special Secretary & Additional Secretary in National Disaster Management Authority (Ministry of Home Affairs). He was the Member-Secretary of the State Electricity Board, Andhra Pradesh and also worked as:

• District Collector & Magistrate for 4 years;
• Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad for 3 and a half years;
• Commissioner (Transport) & Ex-official Secretary (Transport, Road & Building), Government of Andhra Pradesh for 2 and a half years;
• Commissioner & Ex-officio Secretary (Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs) for 5 years; and
• Principal Secretary (Environment, Forest, Science & Technology), Government of Andhra Pradesh.
• He was appointed as the election commissioner in March 2009. He has overseen two Lok Sabha elections and at least one round of Assembly elections in every state.