CEC Row: Gyanesh Kumar Assumes Charge As CEC, Vivek Joshi As EC Amid Appointment Row

Amid the ongoing row over the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioner (EC), Gyanesh Kumar on Wednesday took over as the 26th Chief Election Commissioner, while Vivek Joshi assumed charge as an Election Commissioner while Sukhbir Singh Sandhu is the other election commissioner.

An Election Commissioner since March 2024, Kumar was elevated as the CEC on Monday. Gyanesh Kumar replaced Rajiv Kumar, who demitted office on Tuesday, as head of the poll panel.

In his message to voters after assuming charge, Kumar said, "First step for nation building is voting. Therefore, every citizen of India who has completed 18 years of age should become an elector and should always vote" while asserting that the "Election Commission was, is and will always be with the voters."

Who Is Gyanesh Kumar?

Kumar is a retired Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer from the 1998 Kerala cadre. Ahead of his appointment as CEC, Kumar has held roles in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs where he served as secretary, and at the Ministry of Home Affairs.

During his tenure at MHA, Kumar played a key role in the establishment of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust. As per reports, he also played a key role in managing Jammu and Kashmir affairs after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.

During his term as an IAS officer, he held various positions in Kerala such as district collector at Ernakulam and managing director of the Kerala State Cooperative Bank.

Kumar completed his Bachelor's in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur. Kumar has also studied Business Finance at the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) and Environmental Economics at Harvard University.

He joined the Election Commission as an election commissioner on march 15, 2024 and was one of the two commissioners appointed by the panel along with Sukhbir Sandhu from the Uttarakhand cadre.

Congress Reacts To CEC Appointment

A day after the President appointed Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar as the new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Haryana Chief Secretary Dr. Vivek Joshi as Election Commissioner, Congress criticized the move, calling it a 바카라�hasty midnight decision바카라� that went 바카라�against the spirit of our Constitution바카라� and Supreme Court rulings.

The appointments were made shortly after a meeting of the high-level committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during which Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, reportedly urged the government to delay the appointments until the Supreme Court decides on petitions challenging the new process. The court is scheduled to hear the matter on February 19.

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi said on X the Modi government has violated the Supreme Court order.

"During the meeting of the committee to select the next Election Commissioner, I presented a dissent note to the PM and HM, that stated: The most fundamental aspect of an independent Election Commission free from executive interference is the process of choosing the Election Commissioner and Chief Election Commissioner

By violating the Supreme Court order and removing the Chief Justice of India from the committee, the Modi Government has exacerbated the concerns of hundreds of millions of voters over the integrity of our electoral process," Gandhi said.