Gyanesh Kumar

Early life and education

Gyanesh Kumar was born in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. He completed his BTech in Civil Engineering from IIT Kanpur. Following his graduation, Kumar pursued Business Finance at the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India, before studying Environmental Economics at Harvard University.

Early career

Kumar is a former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1988 Kerala cadre. He started his career as an Assistant Collector (U/T) in Ernakulam and later served as Sub-Collector of Adoor. He also served as the Secretary, Public Works Department of the Kerala Government. He served as Joint Secretary in the Department of Defence production at the Ministry of Defence from 2007 to 2012. He then served as Secretary in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and the Ministry of Co-operation.

Kumar was involved in the drafting of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, which revoked the special autonomous status granted to Jammu and Kashmir in 1947. In January 2020, Kumar was assigned to the Ministry of Home Affairs, wherein he was involved in the establishment of the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra, the organisation overseeing the construction and management of the Ram Mandir at the site of the demolished Babri Masjid. Following his retirement, Kumar was appointed as the Election Commisionser in March 2024 along with Sukhbir Singh Sandhu.

Kerala State Transport Project controversy

Lee Been Seen, a Malaysian official in charge of the Kerala operations of PATI-BEL, a joint road project by Malaysian firm PATI and Bhageeratha Constructions, died by suicide on November 2006. Kumar was serving as secretary of the Kerala Public Works Department (PWD) during the time and was named in the note. The note blamed the PWD and government officials for harrassment and delayed payments and land acquisition, the latter allegedly driving him to suicide. The note blamed the PWD and government officials for harassment and delayed payments and land acquisition, the latter allegedly driving him to suicide.

A Vigilance inquiry was ordered by the Kerala government. Kumar was moved out the PWD at the end of 2006 to the Union defence ministry.

The probe was reopened in October 2026 by the Kerala government.

Chief Election Commissioner of India

On 19 February 2025, Gyanesh Kumar was appointed as the Chief Election Commissioner of India. The selection committee comprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi. Under the amended rules, Shah replaced the Chief Justice of India on the committee. Gandhi opposed the appointment. He is the first to be appointed under the Chief Election Commissioner Act 2023. He has previously served as an election commissioner and as a Cooperation Secretary.

2025 Indian electoral controversy

In August 2025, Kumar became a focal point of the 2025 Indian electoral controversy, wherein Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha alleged widespread electoral fraud in the 2024 Indian general election and the collusion of the ECI with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), leading to protests. Gandhi stated that votes had been "stolen" in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura Assembly constituency through five separate ways, those being 11,965 duplicate voters, 40,009 voters with fake and invalid addresses, 10,452 bulk voters or single address voters, 4,132 voters with invalid photos, and 33,692 voters misusing Form 6, which is used for the registration of new voters. Kumar was widely criticised by opposition parties and leaders, of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) coalition of failing to adequately respond to the allegations and of mimicking BJP rhetoric. In reaction, Kumar criticised the opposition of "spreading misinformation".

During a parliamentary session on 18 August 2025, the INDIA bloc publicly acknowledged that it was considering a motion of impeachment against Kumar.