MUMBAI: Raju Narayana Swamy is no stranger when it comes to records. This Kerala cadre former UPSC topper was ranked first from nursery to civil services examination. Now Raju Narayana Swamy has set a different record of being the Election Observer for most number of times. He was recently appointed as Election Observer for the by-elections in Kolhapur, Maharashtra and that is his 34th time as an observer.

Raju Narayana Swamy is working as an Election Observer for the third time in Maharashtra. He was first appointed as an observer during 2009 Lok Sabha elections at Cooch Behar in Bengal. Later he worked as an election observer in 16 states. The Election Commission had issued a special letter of appreciation to Swamy on his excellent conduct of elections amid the Naxal threat in Jharkhand and in Telangana amid the issues of partition of state. He was an international observer in the 2018 Zimbabwe election.

The book 'From Cooch Behar to Koothali' is based on his experience as an Election observer. It is his 30th book. He is the recipient of the 2003 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for his travel book 'Shantimantram Muzhangunna Thazhvarayil'. He has also written more than 200 research theses and was awarded the prestigious Leonardo da Vinci Fellowship from USA’s George Mason University in intellectual property (IP) law. He also received the Homi Bhabha Fellowship in Cyber ​​Law.

Raju Narayanaswamy, who has bagged first rank in SSLC, Pre-Degree and Degree, has also bagged first rank in PG Diploma from Bangalore National Law School and gold medal in LLM from NLU Delhi.Swamy from the 1991 IAS batch is presently parliamentary affairs principal secretary. He has worked in multifaceted profiles. Swamy has worked as district collector in five districts. Apart from that he has worked as college education director, farm produce commissioner and central coconut development board director. He also received Satyendra K. Dubey Memorial Award for his staunch stand against corruption in 2018 from IIT Kanpur.