Gyanesh Kumar CEC: Gyanesh Kumar will be the next Chief Election Commissioner of India. He is the first CEC to be appointed under the new law. Earlier on Monday, a selection committee meeting was held for appointing the new Chief Election Commissioner.
New CEC Gyanesh Kumar: Senior bureaucrat Gyanesh Kumar has been appointed as the new Chief Election Commissioner, succeeding the outgoing Rajeev Kumar. Gyanesh Kumar, an IAS officer of the 1988 batch from the Kerala cadre, has been serving as an Election Commissioner since March 2024. On Monday afternoon, a three-member selection committee met to appoint the new Chief Election Commissioner.
Gyanesh Kumar is the first Chief Election Commissioner to be appointed under the new law. This law changes the process for the appointment of the head of the Election Commission, replacing the Chief Justice with the Home Minister in the selection committee.
His name was finalized by the selection committee and sent to the President for approval. The committee consisted of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi. They made this decision during meeting.
The Congress party had earlier demanded that the appointment be delayed until the Supreme Court hears the matter.
On Monday evening, Congress had asked the government to delay the selection meeting until the Supreme Court had a chance to hear the petition regarding the Election Commission’s appointments. Rahul Gandhi, as the Leader of the Opposition, was also part of the meeting that took place before Congress’s statement.
Who is Gyanesh Kumar?
61-year-old Gyanesh Kumar previously worked in the Ministry of Home Affairs. His key responsibilities included assisting in drafting the bill to revoke Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and split the state into two Union Territories in August 2019. At that time, he was serving as Joint Secretary in the Kashmir Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
A year later, as Additional Secretary, he handled documents related to the Supreme Court case concerning the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
