New Delhi: The process to choose a new Chief Election Commissioner, who will supervise elections in Bihar later this year and likely in Bengal and Tamil Nadu next year, as well as in Assam and Kerala, is set to begin in the coming days. The committee responsible for selecting the new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) will meet on Monday.
It will comprise Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who serves as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, News18 reported quoting sources. The selection process is expected to begin a day before the Supreme Court hears petitions challenging the 2023 law that governs the appointment of the CEC and Election Commissioners.
The law gives the central government, led by the BJP, greater control over the process. The previous law included the Chief Justice of India in the panel, but the new one replaces this position with a Union minister nominated by the Prime Minister.
All about Gyanesh Kumar
Gyanesh Kumar, a 1988-batch IAS officer from the Kerala cadre, retired on January 31, 2024, as Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation, under Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Earlier, he served as Secretary in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. Kumar also held significant roles in the Ministry of Home Affairs, including Joint Secretary for the Kashmir Division during the revocation of Article 370 in August 2019. In 2020, he became Additional Secretary, overseeing a special desk for the Supreme Court’s Ayodhya verdict, which included responsibilities like the formation of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.
Rajiv Kumar’s tenure
Rajiv Kumar, the current Chief Election Commissioner, will retire on Tuesday. Appointed in May 2022, he oversaw major elections, including the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Jammu and Kashmir’s first Assembly election in years, and state elections in 2023. Despite facing criticism from opposition parties like Congress and AAP over alleged bias towards the BJP and EVM security concerns, Kumar defended the election process, assuring that EVMs were secure and had passed judicial scrutiny, including by the Supreme Court.
