New Delhi:
Gyanesh Kumar assumed charge Wednesday morning as the new Chief Election Commissioner.
Mr Kumar replaces Rajiv Kumar in the role and will oversee the conduct of nearly two-dozen elections, state and presidential, over the course of his four-year term. The new CEC is an ex-IAS officer from the Kerala cadre, and earlier served in the Home Ministry, under current Home Minister Amit Shah. Among his key responsibilities were the drafting of a bill that scrapped Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
In his first remarks after taking charge, Mr Kumar said, “The 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. The Election Commission was, is, and will always be with the voters.”
Mr Kumar’s appointment – the notification was issued late last night – was made amid controversy after Rahul Gandhi and the Congress objected to his nomination.
Mr Gandhi is part of a three-member panel that was tasked with picking the new CEC, but the Congress leader submitted a dissent note instead, objecting to Gyanesh Kumar’s nomination despite a challenge – to the constitution of the panel – that is pending in the Supreme Court.
READ | Gyanesh Kumar Appointed New Chief Election Commissioner
The top court will hear those arguments later today.
In essence, the contention is the committee – which at present consists of the Prime Minister, a member of the union cabinet (to be nominated by the PM), and the Leader of the Opposition – is biased towards the ruling party, and impinges on the Election Commission’s neutrality.
NDTV Explains | Why Gyanesh Kumar’s Pick As Poll Chief Sparked Row
On Tuesday Mr Gandhi posted a sharp attack on X, in which he slammed the centre’s “midnight decision” to appoint Gyanesh Kumar as the next CEC, calling his nomination a ‘violation of the Supreme Court order (by) removing the Chief Justice of India from the selection committee”.
READ | “Midnight Decision Disrespectful”: Rahul Gandhi Note On Poll Chief Selection
“During the meeting of the committee to select the next (Chief) 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,” Mr Gandhi had said.
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… pic.twitter.com/JeL9WSfq3X
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) February 18, 2025
“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,” Mr Gandhi said on X.
READ | All About Gyanesh Kumar, New Chief Election Commissioner
The reference was to an earlier order by the Supreme Court that said the PM, the LoP and the Chief Justice of India should be on the selection committee. To circumvent that ruling the central government later rushed through a bill to replace the Chief Justice.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has announced that Dr Vivek Joshi took office this morning as the new third member of the panel. Dr Joshi is a 1989-batch IAS officer from the Haryana cadre.
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