Who is Gyanesh Kumar? All You Need to Know About the New Chief Election Commissioner

Gyanesh Kumar is appointed as the new chief election commissioner (CEC) succeeding Rajiv Kumar with effect from February 19. His name was proposed by a committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and including Home Minister Amit Shah and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.

In the committee meeting, Gandhi asked the government to defer the appointment until the decision on the petitions challenging the new appointment process pending in the Supreme Court is made. Gyanesh Kumar became the first CEC to be appointed under the new law.

Kumar was appointed to the election commission, along with Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, in March last year after he retired from the Indian Administrative Services. In his tenure, he has been part of the commission conducting the Lok Sabha elections, the first Assembly elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Assembly elections in Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Delhi.

His tenure, which will last till January 26, 2029, twenty Assembly elections, President and Vice-President's elections and 2029 Lok Sabha elections will be conducted.

Gyanesh Kumar was a 1988-batch officer of the Kerala cadre. He served as the Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation before being appointed as the election commissioner. He has also served as the Parliamentary Affairs Secretary, Joint Secretary (May 2016 to September 2018) and Additional Secretary (September 2018 to April 2021) in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Defence.

During his tenure as the Additional Secretary in MHA, he played a pivotal role in the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 and split of Jammu & Kashmir was split into the two Union Territories. He has also been involved in the setting up of the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.

Kumar worked across departments in Kerala including Public Works Department and Finance.

Kumar studied B-Tech in civil engineering from the Indian Institute of Engineering in Kanpur. He has also studied Business Finance at the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India.