Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, the newly appointed Election Commissioners, took charge of the office on Friday. They were appointed by the selection panel chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.
After the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey in February and the surprise resignation of Arun Goel recently, two vacancies were created in the Election Commission days ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
“CEC Shri Rajiv Kumar welcomed the two newly-appointed Election Commissioners, Shri Gyanesh Kumar & Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu who joined the Commission today,” Spokesperson ECI wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“CEC emphasized the significance of their joining at the historic point when ECI is all set to conduct #General Election2024 in the world’s largest democracy. Team ECI is set for action-packed weeks ahead !” it added.
The Election Commission is expected to announce the schedule for the April- May Lok Sabha polls in one of these days. The new commissioners will join their offices to help the poll body conduct these polls. The two appointments come a day before the Supreme Court is slated to hear petitions challenging the selection process.
A search committee led by the Union Law Minister prepares a shortlist, as per the current procedure. Thereafter, a selection panel led by the Prime Minister and comprising the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and a Union Minister picks the final appointees.
Profiles of the new Election Commissioners
Gyanesh Kumar is a 1988-batch IAS officer from the Kerala cadre. He has worked with Amit Shah, the present Union Home Minister, before. He retired as secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation, which comes under Amit Shah, on January 31, 2024. Before that, he also served as the secretary of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
Sukhbir Singh Sandhu is also a 1998 batch IAS officer but from Uttarakhand cadre. Sandhu served as the chief secretary of Uttarakhand when Pushkar Singh Dhami became the Chief Minister in 2021.
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