Rajiv Kumar takes charge as chief election commissioner
He will oversee the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Election commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Sunday took charge as the 25th chief election commissioner of India a day after the incumbent Sushil Chandra retired.
Union law minister Kiren Rijiju had announced Kumar’s appointment on Thursday.
Shri Rajiv Kumar today assumed charge as the 25th Chief Election Commissioner of India at Nirvachan Sadan, New Delhi in pursuance of the Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India’s gazette notification dated 12th May 2022.
— Election Commission of India #SVEEP (@ECISVEEP) May 15, 2022
Press Note:- https://t.co/0A1ISMF1j5 pic.twitter.com/WY3Vdb2U76
Kumar has been the election commissioner since September 1, 2020. He is a 1984 batch Indian Administrative Service officer and has worked in various ministries at the Centre and state level in Bihar and Jharkhand. He has also served as the establishment officer in the Department of Personnel and Training from 2015 to 2017.
In 2020, he resigned from his position as the finance secretary.
The poll panel will have one vacant seat out of three after his appointment as the chief election commissioner, The Hindu reported.
Kumar will oversee the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Jammu and Kashmir during his tenure.
He will also conduct elections to elect the country’s next president and the vice president.