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Gyanesh Kumar’s children have also followed his footsteps and have served as Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers.
In this image via @ECISVEEP on X on Feb. 5, 2025, Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar shows his inked finger after casting his vote at a polling booth during the Delhi Assembly elections, in New Delhi. (IMAGE: PTI)
Gyanesh Kumar, a 1988-batch IAS officer from the Kerala cadre, is set to take on the top role at the Election Commission of India.
The law ministry on Monday announced that the IAS officer, who is a native of Uttar Pradesh’s Agra, was appointed as the next chief election commissioner on Monday, the law ministry said.
Kumar, who is succeeding former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Rajiv Kumar, completed his B.Tech in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, he studied Business Finance in ICFAI, India and Environmental Economics in HIID, Harvard University, US.
The IAS officer, whose son, daughter and son-in-law, as per a News18 Hindi report, are also IAS officers, superannuated on January 31, 2024 and has previously worked as the joint secretary in the Ministry of Defence, joint secretary and additional secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, secretary in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation.
Notably, during his tenure, he worked on important assignments such as the revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
In 2014, while serving as the Resident Commissioner of Kerala in Delhi, Kumar was deputed by the state government to rescue Indian nurses stranded in war-torn Iraq. The operation, which rescued 46 nurses initially and later 183 Indians, included 70 evacuees from Kerala.
As a secretary to the government of Kerala, Kumar handled diverse departments, such as finance resources, fast-track projects and the public works department.
He has worked in the government of Kerala as the assistant collector of Ernakulam, sub-collector of Adoor, managing director of the Kerala State Development Corporation for SC/ST, municipal commissioner of the Corporation of Cochin, besides holding other posts.
His term will run till January 26, 2029, days before the EC is expected to announce the schedule of the next Lok Sabha election.
Vivek Joshi, a 1989-batch Haryana-cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, has been appointed as an election commissioner.
During his tenure as the 26th CEC, Kumar will oversee the Bihar Assembly polls later this year, and the Kerala and Puducherry Assembly polls in 2026.
Similarly, he will oversee the Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, which are also due in 2026.
(with PTI and News18 Hindi inputs)
