Rajiv Kumar will retire today as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of the Election Commission of India (ECI). Kumar was appointed the Chief Election Officer on March 14, 2024, and joined office the very next day. Gyanesh Kumar was selected to succeed Rajiv Kumar on Monday, February 17, 2025. He was appointed as election commissioner around a year ago.
Mr. Gyanesh’s appointment was followed by Prime Minister Modi-led high-level panel meeting for the selection of the new CEC. In the meeting, Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, requested the government to postpone the appointment until the Supreme Court declares a decision on petitions against the new appointment. The SC hearing will take place on February 19, 2025.Â
Gyanesh Kumar is a Kerala cadre officer belonging to the 1998 batch. He has been in the home ministry for 5 years. First, he was a joint secretary from May 2016 to September 2018 and then appointed as the additional secretary from September 2018 to April 2021.Â
The additional secretary, Gyanesh went to Jammu Kashmir in 2019 after the removal of Article 370, due to which the state came under the direct control of the President. At that time, Gyanesh Kumar routinely accompanied Amith Shah to Parliament.Â
Gyanesh Kumar holds a B-Tech degree in civil engineering from the Indian Institute of Engineering Kanpur. He also completed studies in business finance from the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts in India.
