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Gyanesh Kumar, a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from the 1988 Kerala cadre, has been named the new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India. He will take over from Rajiv Kumar, who stepped down on Monday. Currently serving as an Election Commissioner, Kumar is the most senior member of the three-person panel and is set to assume leadership of the Election Commission. His tenure will include overseeing major elections, such as the Bihar Assembly polls in 2025 and state elections in West Bengal, Assam, and Tamil Nadu in 2026.
As the senior-most among the two commissioners on the panel, Kumar was the natural choice for the role after Rajiv Kumar’s retirement. The other serving Election Commissioner is Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, an IAS officer from the Uttarakhand cadre.
At 61 years old, Gyanesh Kumar has held several key positions in the central government. He played a crucial role in drafting the bill that led to the revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, a move that resulted in the state’s bifurcation into two union territories. At that time, he was serving as Joint Secretary (Kashmir Division) in the Union Home Ministry.
In 2020, as Additional Secretary in the Home Ministry, Kumar was responsible for handling critical matters related to the Supreme Court case on the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. He managed important documentation that contributed to the establishment of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.
Kumar holds a B.Tech in Civil Engineering from the renowned Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur. He has also pursued studies in Business Finance from the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India and Environmental Economics from Harvard University, further strengthening his expertise in governance and policy-making.
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