Who’s Gyanesh Kumar? India’s twenty sixth Chief Election Commissioner | India Information – The Occasions of India
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led choice committee has appointed Gyanesh Kumar as India’s subsequent Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), changing Rajiv Kumar, who retires on Tuesday upon reaching the age of 65.
Rajiv Kumar, who took cost as CEC in Might 2022, oversaw a number of key elections, together with the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 and numerous state meeting polls. His tenure was marked by efforts to boost electoral transparency and voter participation. His retirement paves the best way for a brand new management on the Election Fee of India (ECI), with Gyanesh Kumar taking the helm.
Nonetheless, the appointment course of has sparked controversy. The Congress celebration urged the federal government to defer the choice till the Supreme Court docket hears a petition difficult the revised appointment course of for the CEC and election commissioners. Congress chief Abhishek Manu Singhvi criticised the exclusion of the Chief Justice of India from the choice panel, alleging that the federal government seeks to regulate the Election Fee reasonably than preserve its credibility.
Who’s Gyanesh Kumar?
- Gyanesh Kumar is a retired IAS officer from the 1988 Kerala cadre.
- He has beforehand served as Secretary within the ministry of parliamentary affairs and the Ministry of Cooperation.
- He was instrumental in establishing the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Belief throughout his tenure on the ministry of house affairs.
- Kumar performed a key function in dealing with Jammu and Kashmir affairs when
Article 370 was revoked in 2019. - He has additionally labored in numerous capacities in Kerala, together with as District Collector of Ernakulam and MD of Kerala State Cooperative Financial institution.
- He holds a BTech in Civil Engineering from IIT Kanpur and has studied Enterprise Finance at ICFAI and Environmental Economics at Harvard College.
He took cost as an election commissioner on March 15, 2024, and was one of many two commissioners appointed by the choice panel, alongside Sukhbir Sandhu from the Uttarakhand cadre.
