Gyanesh Kumar and SS Sandhu will be the new election commissioners of the country, the central government has issued a notificationoffice

Before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the central government has issued a notification regarding the appointment of election commissioners. Gyanesh Kumar and SS Sandhu have been appointed as Election Commissioners. A high-level committee under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved two names for recruitment to the vacant posts of two commissioners in the Election Commission. The committee has appointed Gianesh Kumar Gupta and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu as election commissioners. Both are retired IAS officers. Both have retired from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) at different times.

Who is Gyanesh Kumar?
Gyanesh Kumar is a retired IAS officer of Kerala cadre. He was in-charge of the Kashmir Division in the Union Home Ministry when the Central Government took the historic decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution from Jammu and Kashmir. The Modi government had abolished Article 370 on 5 August 2019. Gyanesh Kumar, a 1988 batch IAS, was made the Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation in May 2022. He was transferred from the post of Secretary in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. Kumar replaced Devendra Kumar Singh in the Ministry of Cooperation. Singh was also an IAS of the Kerala cadre who was made the General Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission. Gyanesh Kumar’s service continued even after the age of retirement. He retired on 31 January 2024.

Who is Sukhbir Sandhu?
Sukhbir Sandhu is a retired IAS officer of 1998 batch. When Pushkar Singh Dhami was made the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand in 2021, Sukhbir Sandhu was on the post of Chief Secretary of the state. Earlier, Sandhu has also served as Chairman of National Highways Authority and Additional Secretary in Higher Education Department, Ministry of Human Resources. Sukhbir Sandhu holds MBBS from Government Medical College, Amritsar and MD in History from Guru Nanak Dev University. He also has a law degree. Sandhu has also written research papers on ‘Urban Reforms’ and ‘Municipal Management and Capacity Building’.