Rajiv Kumar to be the CEC when Gujarat will go to polls this year and India in 2024

New Delhi: The present Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar will be the next Chief Election Commissioner after the term of incumbent CEC Sushil Chandra ends on May 14, 2022. Gujarat assembly general election later this year and Lok Sabha elections in 2024 will be held under him.

Former bureaucrat Rajiv Kumar in September 2020 assumed charge as the new election commissioner. He took the place vacated by Ashok Lavasa who joined the Asian Development Bank as vice president.

Rajiv Kumar, a retired 1984-batch IAS officer of the Jharkhand cadre will retire in 2025, at the end of his five-year term.

According to rules, an election commissioner has six years on the post or till he turns 65, whichever is earlier. Rajiv Kumar was born in February, 1960.

During the span of more than 36 years of service, Rajiv Kumar worked in various ministries at the Centre and his state cadre of earlier Bihar and then Jharkhand. He retired as the union finance secretary in February this year and was appointed chairperson of the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) on April 29 in 2020.

Despite disruptions due to COVID-19, more than 40 selections were made in just a span of two months through virtual and physical interview process during his short stay at the public sector headhunter.

Rajiv Kumar had also been Establishment Officer, Department of Personnel and Training, and prior to that joint secretary, Department of Expenditure with earlier assignments in Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Ministry of Environment and Forests, as also Education department in the state cadre.