The Central government on Monday(17 February) announced the appointment of Gyanesh Kumar as the new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).

• He will be replacing Rajiv Kumar. 
• Gyanesh Kumar is a 1988-batch IAS officer from the Kerala cadre and is senior to the two other commissioners on the three-member panel that was led by Rajiv Kumar.
• The other commissioner on the panel is Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, an officer from the Uttarakhand cadre and Vivek Joshi. 
• The government also announced the appointment of Vivek Joshi as Election Commissioner.
• Joshi has been the former Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner.