Gyanesh Kumar appointed as Chief Election Commissioner; Vivek Joshi is new EC
STATE TIMES NEWS
New Delhi: Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was appointed as the next Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on Monday, the law ministry said. Dr Vivek Joshi, a 1989-batch Haryana-cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, has been appointed as Election Commissioner (EC).
Kumar is the first CEC to be appointed under the new law on the appointment of the members of the Election Commission (EC).
His term will run till January 26, 2029, days before the EC is expected to announce the schedule of the next Lok Sabha election.
During his tenure as the 26th CEC, Kumar will oversee the Bihar Assembly polls later this year, and the Kerala and Puducherry Assembly polls in 2026.
Similarly, he will oversee the Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, which are also due in 2026.
Kumar, who played a key role in implementing decisions following the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir during his stint in the Union home ministry, took charge as an election commissioner on March 15, 2024.
The meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi took place in the South Block office. Besides Modi and Rahul Gandhi, Home Minister Amit Shah was the third member of the selection panel. Kumar is a 1988-batch Kerala Cadre IAS officer. After completing his B.Tech in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, he studied Business Finance in ICFAI, India and Environmental Economics in HIID, Harvard University, US.
He has worked in the government of Kerala as the assistant collector of Ernakulam, sub-collector of Adoor, managing director of the Kerala State Development Corporation for SC/ST, municipal commissioner of the Corporation of Cochin, besides holding other posts.
As a secretary to the government of Kerala, Kumar handled diverse departments, such as finance resources, fast-track projects and the public works department.
In central government, he has rich experience of working as the joint secretary in the Ministry of Defence, joint secretary and additional secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, secretary in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation. He superannuated on January 31, 2024.
