Government Appoints Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar As Election Commissioners

Both Sandhu and Kumar are retired IAS officers from the 1988 batch. Sandhu belongs to the Uttarakhand cadre, where he retired as chief secretary, while Kumar belongs to the Kerala cadre and is currently the secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation. 

The selection committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and the leader of the largest opposition party, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, met on Thursday in the national capital to discuss the shortlisted names for the post.

The Prime Minister and the Home Minister approved the names, Chowdhury told journalists after the meeting, where he gave a note of dissent. Later in the day, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice issued a gazette notification after the appointments were approved by President Droupadi Murmu.  

The appointment of Sandhu and Kumar follows the sudden resignation of Arun Goel from the Election Commission, which reduced the strength of the 3-member body to just one -- the chief election commissioner. The tenure of the other member, Anup Chandra Pandey, ended in mid-February. Goel resigned nearly three years before the scheduled conclusion of his term.

Following the latest appointments, the Commission will now focus on continuing with the planning and announcement of the dates for the elections.

While much of the groundwork has already been completed, the finishing touches to the poll process are still underway. These include the deployment of central forces, sensitising local officials on the need to check electoral malpractices including social media misinformation campaigns has yet to be completed.

The two seasoned bureaucrats, who have handled several elections in the past, are expected to steer the central team through the process. 

Notwithstanding their low profile, both Sandhu and Kumar have worked closely with the current dispensation. Sandhu served as the Chairman of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) before being appointed as the Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand. On the other hand, Gyanesh Kumar worked closely with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

During the sensitive period when Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two union territories and special status under Article 370 was abrogated in 2019, Kumar handled the Jammu and Kashmir division. Later on, he was appointed as the secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation headed by Amit Shah.