Congress slams Gyanesh Kumar's appointment as CEC: 'To circumvent Supreme Court scrutiny…'
KC Venugopal said the government ought to have waited until the apex court's hearing in the matter on Wednesday.
The Congress has called the Centre's notification on the appointment of Gyanesh Kumar as the chief election commissioner a “hastily taken decision”. The party alleged the BJP-led government was keen to circumvent the Supreme Court's scrutiny of the structure of the panel that recommended the officer's name.
"This goes against the spirit of our Constitution, and what has been reiterated by the Supreme Court in many cases – for the electoral process to have sanctity, the CEC must be an impartial stakeholder," Congress general secretary KC Venugopal wrote on X on Monday night.
KC Venugopal, one of the senior-most leaders in the party, said the amended law dealing with the appointment of election commissioners had removed the Chief Justice of India (CJI) from the CEC selection panel and the government ought to have waited until the apex court's hearing in the matter on Wednesday (February 19) before selecting the officer.
"Their decision to hastily hold the meeting today and appoint the new EC shows they are keen to circumvent the Supreme Court's scrutiny and get the appointment done before a clear order kicks in," he said.
He said "such egregious behaviour" shows the ruling regime was destroying the electoral process and bending the rules for its benefit.
"Be it fake voter lists, schedules favouring the BJP, or concerns around EVM hacking – the government and the CECs it appoints are subject to deep suspicion because of such incidents," Venugopal added.
He said as Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had rightly pointed out that the decision should have been kept in abeyance until the apex court decided the issue.
The announcement of Kumar's appointment came hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led selection panel proposed his name. However, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, a member of the selection panel, objected to the timing of the meeting as a case related to the constitution of the panel will be heard by the apex court on Wednesday.
The selection panel meeting, held at the Prime Minister’s office, was also attended by union home minister Amit Shah. Gandhi submitted an official dissent note.
Who is Gyanesh Kumar?
Gyanesh Kumar is a Kerala cadre IAS officer from the 1988 batch who retired as the secretary of the Ministry of Cooperation before being appointed as an election commissioner last year.
He was a secretary in the Amit Shah-led ministry from May 2022. He spent five years in the home ministry, first as a joint secretary from May 2016 to September 2018 and then as an additional secretary from September 2018 to April 2021. As the additional secretary, he headed the Jammu & Kashmir desk when Article 370 was abrogated in August 2019. He became an election commissioner in 2024.
Gyanesh Kumar's term will run till January 26, 2029.
