Professor Jagdeep Chhokar is the co-founder and trustee of the Association for Democratic Reforms, an organization that works for electoral and political reforms. A former director in-charge of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, he has also taught at universities in Australia, France, Japan and the U.S.
Mragendra Singh Bundela is an advocate by profession and lives in the Chhattarpur district of Madhya Pradesh. He lost his elder daughter when she was assaulted and murdered by a politician from a national party.
Dr D. N. Gautam is an IPS officer of the 1974 batch. He has served as the Director General of Police, Bihar and as Security Advisor to the Chief Minister of Jharkhand.
Amit Sarkar is the son of Ajit Sarkar, a political leader from the Purnia constituency, Bihar, who took up the cause of the landless and the poor. In 1998, Ajit Sarkar was murdered by a rival politician. Today, Amit lives in Australia with his wife and children.
Milan Vaishnav is an associate in the South Asia programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington D.C. One of his ongoing research projects examines the causes and consequences of political corruption in India, with an emphasis on the representation and quality of political leadership, connections between the state and private capital, and the management and exploitation of natural resources.
Utkarsh Kumar Sinha is the editor of Avadhnama, a Hindi and Urdu language newspaper. Besides being a journalist for 18 years, he has been involved in various social movements for effective governance and democracy.
Deependra Singh Shekhawat is the former Speaker of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly.
Inder Singh Namdhari is an Independent Lok Sabha MP representing the Chatra constituency of Jharkhand. He is also a former Speaker of the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly.
Vishwa Vijay Singh played a key role in fighting to save the Ami river from industrial effluents in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district. He has also contested the state assembly elections from the Sahjanwa constituency in Gorakhpur.
Vivek Pandit is the founder the NGO Vande Mataram Pratisthan. In 2004, he contested the state assembly elections from Mumbai as an independent candidate.
James Lyngdoh joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1961 at the age of 22 and is the former Chief Election Commissioner of India. He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 2003.
N. Gopalaswami is a former Chief Election Commissioner of India. He is an IAS officer of the 1966 batch. Currently, he is the president of Vivekananda Educational Society which runs a group of schools in and around Chennai.
As an advisor to the Election Commission of India, K. J. Rao has been credited with ensuring free and fair polls in Bihar in 2005 and introducing many reforms in the West Bengal assembly elections a year later. Rao, who retired in 2006, works with the Foundation for Advanced Management of Elections, a Delhi-based NGO run by some former election commissioners.
An IAS officer of the 1971 batch, Dr S. Y. Quraishi is a former Chief Election Commissioner of India. Prior to joining the Election Commission, he was Secretary of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India.
Tanmay Kanitkar is a founding member of Parivartan, a Pune-based organization, which works on creating social and political awareness. He holds a master’s degree in Communication Studies and is also a researcher and a writer.
Raghvendra Suhasaa is the Superintendent of Police in Bhilwara, Rajasthan.
Maruti Bhapkar is a former Municipal Corporator from the Pimpri-Chinchwad region of Maharashtra. As a corporator, he held jan sabhas in his ward every three months to consult the public on various civic issues. He also fought the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Maval as an Independent candidate.
M. G. Devasahayam, a former army and IAS officer, has worked on various issues including urban development, utility management, governance and environment. He is also the founder-convener of the Chennai-based Forum for Electoral Integrity.
Professor Trilochan Sastry, formerly the Dean (Academics), Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, is the chairman and co-founder of Association for Democratic Reforms. He has been involved with several civil society initiatives and movements in various capacities.