Gyanesh Kumar Appointed As India’s Next Chief Election Commissioner Amid Opposition Dissent

NEW DELHI: Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the senior of the two election commissioners after Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, was appointed as the next chief election commissioner on Monday, February 17, the government announced.

As the next Chief Election Commissioner, he would be in-charge of elections in five states—opposition-ruled West Bengal, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu and NDA-ruled Bihar and Assam—in the immediate future. The election in Bihar is due later this year—the rest take place in 2026.

Kumar, who will stay in the post until January 26, 2029, will altogether steer the Commission through 20 Assembly elections, elections for President and Vice-President in 2027, and preparations for the 2029 Lok Sabha election.

The announcement came shortly after a meeting of the Election Committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, where the Congress leader had given a note of dissent.

Mr. Kumar, a 1988-batch IAS officer from the Kerala cadre, was part of the Union Home Ministry and helped draft the bill that scrapped Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.

The Congress objected to the selection as the law on the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner has been challenged in the Supreme Court, which will hear the matter on Saturday. As per reports, the government did not want to postpone the selection process as it would leave a vacancy in the poll commission.

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