<P> While the office has always been an important one in the machinery of the Indian political process, it gained significant public attention during the tenure of T.N. Seshan, from 1990 to 1996 . Seshan is widely credited with undertaking a zealous effort to end corruption and manipulation in Indian elections . Though he made significant progress, several politicians attempted to derail these efforts . In particular, the expansion of the Election Commission to include the two Election Commissioners (in addition to the Chief Commissioner) was seen as a move to curtail the commissioner's ability to act aggressively . </P> <P> In June 2012, Lal Krishna Advani, a veteran Indian politician and former Deputy Prime Minister of India (as well as former Leader of the Opposition in Indian Parliament), suggested that appointment of CEC (as well as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)) should be made by a bipartisan collegium consisting of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice, the Law Minister and the Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha . Subsequently, M Karunanidhi, the head of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party and five times Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu supported the suggestion . Advani made this demand to remove any impression of bias or lack of transparency and fairness because, according to him, the current system was open to "manipulation and partisanship". Similar demand was made by many former CEC's such as BB Tandon, N Gopalaswamy and SY Quraishi . </P> <P> By the "Election Commission (Condition Of Service Of Election Commissions And Transaction Of Business) Act, 1991", the salary of the chief election commissioner is the same as salary of a Judge of Supreme Court of India . </P> <Table> Salary of Chief Election Commissioner <Tr> <Th> Date </Th> <Th> Salary </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1 January 2006 </Td> <Td> ₹ 90,000 (US $1,400) monthly </Td> </Tr> </Table>

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