Election Commission Faces Internal Strife and Scrutiny Over Chief Gyanesh Kumar's Past

Internal Rupture

An investigation by The Indian Express has revealed an unprecedented rupture within the Election Commission, putting Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar under heavy scrutiny. Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally objected at least 14 times over the last 10 months to decisions taken by the poll panel without their knowledge. This opacity forced Kumar's two colleagues to write to the Cabinet Secretary to flag their concerns, though Kumar is yet to react to the political uproar. The 62-year-old Kumar is the first CEC appointed under a contentious new law where the government holds an advantage in the selection panel.

Career Background

Kumar is a 1988-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre with a B.Tech degree from IIT-Kanpur and a course in environmental economics from Harvard University. His bureaucratic career gained major momentum when he was appointed Joint Secretary in the Kashmir Division of the Union Home Ministry in May 2016. In 2019, he helped draft the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill that split the state into two Union Territories and abrogated Article 370. His handling of that period earned him the trust of Home Minister Amit Shah. Following that, he was tasked with constituting the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust to oversee the Ram temple construction in Ayodhya. After briefly serving as Secretary in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and the Ministry of Cooperation, Kumar retired in January 2024 and was picked as an election commissioner less than two months later, eventually becoming CEC.

Voter List Controversies

Kumar's 19-month tenure has seen a major uproar over the Special Intensive Revision of voter lists in several states. Opposition parties, led by the Congress, have accused Kumar of using the poll panel to favor the ruling party, allegations that the CEC has dismissed. The poll panel stepped up its social media game to call these charges misleading, and Kumar challenged Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi to substantiate allegations of vote chori or apologize to the nation.