New Delhi: Gyanesh Kumar is in all likelihood going to be the next Chief Election Commissioner of India. He will replace the outgoing Rajiv Kumar. If he becomes the next poll body chief, Kumar will oversee the Bihar Assembly election later this year, as well as the elections in Bengal, Assam, and Tamil Nadu next year.
In March last year, Kumar was appointed as an Election Commissioner. A 1988-batch IAS officer from Kerala cadre, Kumar is the senior of the two commissioners on the three-member panel, which was headed by Rajiv Kumar until he stepped down on Monday morning. The other commissioner on the committee is Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, an officer from the Uttarakhand cadre.
Kumar’s nomination is yet to be ratified. The opposition Congress, represented on the selection panel by Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has raised objections, arguing that the appointment of the new CEC is being rushed through.
The party has pointed out that the Supreme Court will hear a challenge on February 22 to the 2023 law governing the selection of the CEC. According to critics, the law offers the ruling BJP control over the CEC selection process. Under this law, a three-member panel consisting of the Prime Minister, a Cabinet Minister, and the Leader of the Opposition will make the final decision. The decision will then be conveyed to the President.
All about Gyanesh Kumar
Kumar is 61 years old and previously, he was part of the Union Home Ministry. One of his key responsibilities was assisting in drafting the bill that abrogated Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019. The abrogation led to the division of the former state into two union territories. Kumar was at the time the Joint Secretary (Kashmir Division) in the Home Ministry.
After an year, Kumar also managed documents related to the Supreme Court case concerning the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, as Additional Secretary in the Home Ministry.
According to sources, Kumar’s proximity to Home Minister Amit Shah is well-known. Kumar took retirement from the civil service in January last year as Secretary of the Ministry of Cooperation, headed by Shah.
Earlier to these responsibilities, he was the Secretary in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. He was also assigned to the Defence Ministry during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
While having a B.Tech degree in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Engineering in Kanpur, Kumar also pursued Business Finance from the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India. He has also got a degree in Environmental Economics from Harvard University.
