President Ram Nath Kovind Friday appointed former Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar as the new Election Commissioner.Kumar, a 1984 batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, has been appointed in place of Ashok Lavasa, who had resigned earlier this week to join the Philippines-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) as vice-president next month.Kumar will take charge on August 31.
Before joining the Finance Ministry, Kumar was the Establishment Officer in the Department of Personnel and Training.He was instrumental in many initiatives including streamlining of promotion and appointment process done by the ACC.While Sunil Arora is the Chief Election Commissioner, the other Election Commissioner, aside from Kumar now, is Sushil Chandra.
Lavasa had submitted his resignation to President Ram Nath Kovind and had requested to be relieved on August 31.He still had over two years left in his term at the Election Commission of India.He would have retired as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) in October 2022.
