Rajiv Kumar (civil servant)

Rajiv Kumar (born 19 February 1960) is a former Indian Administrative Service officer. On 15 May 2022, he assumed the charge as the 25th Chief Election Commissioner of India, succeeding Sushil Chandra.

Early life
Kumar was born on February 19, 1960, he holds degrees in BSc from St. Stephen’s College, LLB, PGDM, and a master's degree in public policy. Rajiv completed his LLB from Delhi University between 1979 and 1982 and he is also an alumnus of the TERI School of Advanced Studies.

Career
Kumar is an Indian Administrative Service officer of the Bihar/Jharkhand cadre of the 1984 batch. As the director and joint secretary in the Tribal Affairs Ministry between 2001 and 2007, Kumar drafted the Scheduled Tribes (Reorganisation of Forests Rights) Bill, 2005. It was under his supervision that the Special Central Assistance to States and Grants under Art. 275(1) of the Constitution was granted for the development of scheduled and tribal areas.

Rajiv Kumar has also held other positions such as director for the Central Board of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), SBI, and NABARD. He has also been a member of the Economic Intelligence Council (EIC), Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), Bank Board Bureau (BBB) and Financial Sector Regulatory Appointments Search Committee (FSRASC). He held the post of finance secretary between September 2017 and February 2020. During his tenure, he undertook several banking, insurance, and pension reforms. Kumar has been instrumental in streamlining the National Pension System (NPS) which extends its benefits to about 18 lakh central government employees. He superannuated from service in February 2020 and later he held the post of chairman of the Public Enterprises Selection Board since April 2020 before being appointed as the Election Commissioner of India on September 1, 2020.

As Finance Secretary-cum-Secretary, Department of Financial Services to GOI, (Sept 2017 - Feb 2020), Kumar supervised the financial services sector and was instrumental in introducing inter-alia major initiatives/reforms in Banking, Insurance & Pension sector. Kumar was also instrumental in conceiving and implementing mega-mergers of Banks & acquisitions in the financial sector. He planned and implemented an unprecedented recapitalization program for PSBs amounting to Rs. 2.11 lakh crore to support capital adequacy of PSBs and prevent default. He is credited with the turnaround of the Banking Sector and establishing in a short span that lenders and borrowers have to stick to prudential norms of lending. To curb the circulation of black money in a layered fashion, Kumar had frozen bank accounts of ~3.38 lakh shell companies used for creating fictitious equity. Streamlining of National Pension System (NPS) was also affected, benefitting approximately 18 lakh Central Government employees including enhancement of mandatory contribution by the Central Government.

Inauguration
Rajiv Kumar was appointed as the Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC) on May 15, 2022. His term will end in February 2025. After assuming charge, Kumar trekked for 18 km through inaccessible terrain to visit an interior polling station in Dumak village in Chamoli, Uttarakhand. He assessed the polling requirements and motivated polling officials, who travel through tough terrains during elections.

Kumar, in a rare gesture and mark of gratitude for the first voter of independent India and Himachal’s pride Shri Shyam Saran Negi’s democratic values, ethos and contribution, visited Kalpa, native village of Shri Negi soon after his demise. Shri Shyam Saran Negi died at the age of 106 years, three days after casting his vote for the 34th time in the Himachal Pradesh Elections 2022 through home voting facility at his native place in Kalpa, Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh. Kumar met his bereaved family in person and paid floral tributes. During his conversation with family members, Shri Negi’s son recalled a gratitude letter written by Kumar to all centenarian voters across the country.

Taking forward ECI’s commitment to an inclusive and accessible environment, CEC Kumar felicitated the Indian Deaf Cricket Team at Nirvachan Sadan on International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The meeting reaffirmed ECI's commitment to mainstream and deeply embed the concept and practice of accessibility in ensuring a new normal of enabling environment in the entire election process ecosystem from registration to voting.

Ensuring compliance and transparency in affairs related to political parties
Soon after Rajiv Kumar took charge as the CEC of India, he pro-actively pursued the cleaning up of political space by utilising the available statutory space in the RP Act, 1951. Earlier, in May 2022, noticing certain instances of serious financial impropriety in cases of few Registered Unrecognized Political Parties (RUPPs), action was taken against a total 537 RUPPs. ECI delisted 284 RUPPs and 253 other RUPPs were declared inactive.

Under his leadership, a meeting of all Recognized National and State Political Parties was also organized by the Election Commission in January 2023 to discuss the issue of enhancing voter participation in the electoral process. Representatives of National and State Recognised Political Parties attended the full-day discussion session on January 16, 2023. A concept paper on “Improving Voter Participation of Domestic Migrants Using Remote Voting” was also shared by the Election Commission with all National and State political parties.

Presidential- Vice Presidential Elections
Kumar successfully conducted 16th Presidential and Vice Presidential Elections in 2022. Droupadi Murmu and Jagdeep Dhankhar were respectively elected as the President and the Vice-President of India.

State Assembly Elections
Kumar, in his tenure, successfully led the conduct of assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh in  November–December 2022, three Northeastern States - Tripura,  Nagaland and Meghalaya  in February 2023, followed by elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana in November 2023. Meticulous planning and exhaustive reviews by the Commission led by Rajiv Kumar ensured violence-free, fair, accessible and inclusive elections in the five states. There were no repolls in the election to the State Assembly of Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura and Meghalaya while repoll in four polling stations in Nagaland were held due to local and human factors. Under his leadership, in the last six state elections in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura, and Karnataka where record seizures amounting to over Rs. 14000 crores had happened to ensure an inducement free elections. This was an almost 11-fold increase from previous elections in 2017 & 2018 in the five states. In Tripura Elections 2023, for the first time Bru migrant voters were able to exercise their franchise. Special efforts were undertaken to enrol voters from Bru Community. 14,055 adult members were enrolled in the State in 12 locations highlighting efforts to expand voter participation and strengthen the democratic fabric of the nation. Meticulous planning of the Commission led by CEC Kumar has ensured violence-free, fair, accessible, inclusive and inducement free elections in all the five states so far.

During his tenure as CEC, Kumar has raised prominent issues in electoral participation focusing on urban apathy, youth apathy and participation of domestic migrants. He has actively spoken about addressing these issues on many occasions including media interactions and interaction with students and youth. Kumar led a cycle rally in Pune consisting of nearly 300-400 cyclists to raise voter awareness amongst the youth and the urban population. Similarly, in an attempt to address issues related to urban apathy and youth apathy, an election hackathon ‘Electhon 23’ was launched in Bengaluru in March 2023 ahead of the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023 ,in an endeavor to engage the young professionals and knowledge industry. The initiative has been to seek ideas and solutions on measures to increase the participation of urban and young voters in the elections, boost voter turnout on the election day and registration of voters in the electoral roll. While launching the national level Special Summary Revision of Electoral Rolls 2023 from Pune, he had also emphasized on an inclusive & healthy electoral roll with special focus inclusion of Third gender voters and Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).

International Cooperation
Further, under Kumar’s guidance,  the Election Commission of India led the ‘Cohort on Election Integrity’ under the ‘Summit for Democracy’. ‘Summit for Democracy’, is an initiative of the US President  hosted in December 2021. As part of the ‘ ‘Cohort on Election Integrity’, Election Commission of India had organized three International Conferences with Mauritius, Greece & International organization IFES as co-leads. The first Conference on ‘Role, Framework & Capacity of EMBs’ was organized on October 31- November 1, 2022 in New Delhi. EMBs from Armenia, Mauritius, Nepal, Cabo Verde, Australia, Chile, Federal States of Micronesia, Greece, Philippines, São Tomé & Príncipe and three international organizations namely, IFES, International IDEA and UNDP India participated in the conference. Excellencies, Ambassadors/High Commissioners and other members of the Diplomatic Corps from Costa Rica, Ghana, Jamaica, Albania, Nepal, Greece, Montenegro, Spain also attended the two day Conference. Ms. Elizabeth Jones, the then Charge d’Affaires, ad interim at US Embassy in New Delhi also attended the Conference.

ECI, as the lead, also committed to also provide training and capacity-building programmes to Election Management Bodies (EMBs) across the world and provide technical consultancy as per the needs of other EMBs.

The 2nd International Conference on ‘Use of Technology and Elections Integrity’ which was organized in January 2023 in New Delhi was joined by Representatives from 16 EMBs & Countries. Heads/Dy Heads of 9 EMBs and IFES participated in the Conference.

In these two conferences, Kumar flagged threats from deep fake narratives to elections worldwide. On pressing challenges before the Election Management Bodies, Kumar stressed on the impact of new media, especially social media as an interaction with EMB's functioning. He highlighted the disturbing trend of deep fake narratives, which has become a common feature in elections worldwide, where disruptive elements attempt to alter public perception and mislead the user by repetitively presenting the deep fakes as "fact". Kumar stressed that social media intermediaries, through their algorithm power and AI, can detect deep fakes proactively, especially in jurisdictions like India, where electoral cycles are definite and well-announced. He emphasized that early red flagging of fake news based on known modus operandi and genres and a proactive approach to counter fake news will facilitate credible electoral outcomes that will help preserve the ‘freedoms’, which the social media platforms require to thrive. The third Conference on ‘Inclusive Elections and Elections Integrity’ organized virtually in March 2023.

Kumar chaired the Extraordinary meeting of the Executive Board of the Association of World Election Bodies at Cape Town, South Africa in October 2022 during the 5th General Assembly meeting of the AWEB at Cape Town. During the 5th General Assembly meeting of the AWEB, Kumar handed over the AWEB Flag to the Election Commission of South Africa, the new chair of the AWEB.

Further, Kumar was invited by the Chief Election Commissioner of Bhutan  to explore avenues for expanding bilateral cooperation on election matters and strengthen the cooperation between the two election management bodies. The visit to Bhutan by the Chief Election Commissioner of India has happened almost after a decade. The last visit by a CEC India to Bhutan was in 2013. During the visit, Kumar also called on the Prime Minister of Bhutan H.E Lyonchhen Dr Lotay Tshering who in a tweet thanked CEC Rajiv Kumar for ECIs support and cooperation to the Election Commission of Bhutan that is critical to strengthen their democracy. Both the EMBs discussed further collaboration on Human resource development, research & training and leveraging technological advancements to further strengthen the election management.

ECI through its India International Institute for Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) is also providing capacity building and training support to election officials from EMBs across the globe. Till date around 2500 International participants from 117 countries have benefitted through 122 programs conducted by IIIDEM and has thus created a vast global community for exchange of ideas and knowledge.

With ECI’s increasing stature globally, ECI has been increasingly invited by EMBs in other countries like Uzbekistan, Nepal, Fiji, Maldives, Cambodia, Republic of Zimbabwe, etc. to observe their elections.

ECI has been expanding its links and cooperation with foreign Election Management Bodies (EMBs) through its ‘International Cooperation Programme’. Having signed MoUs with Mexico, Brazil and Chile in the past years, Panama is the fourth MoU signed by ECI with an EMB in the Latin Americas region, with an overall 31 MoUs with EMBs and international organisations across the world.

Delimitation PS and AC in Assam
During his tenure as CEC, Shri Kumar successfully completed another daunting task of delimitation of Parliamentary & Assembly Constituencies of Assam. Through consensus, consultation, and active participation, Shri Kumar along with fellow Commissioners brought together various stakeholders with conflicting viewpoints and interests to the same table, fostering an inclusive, participative and representative approach towards redefining electoral boundaries. Over 1200 representations from 31 districts and 20 political parties heard by the Commission in person at Guwahati. More than 6000 persons participated in the consultative exercise over three days.

International Observer
Kumar was also invited by the Election Commission of Nepal as International Observer for the  elections to Nepal’s House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly. Kumar led a delegation of ECI officials as the State guest in Nepal and visited various polling stations in Kathmandu and other areas. Elections for the Federal and Provincial elections to elect 275 members of the Federal Parliament and 550 seats of the seven Provincial Assemblies in Nepal were held in November, 2022.

13th NVD: ‘Nothing Like Voting, I Vote for Sure
Under Kumar’s leadership, the 13th National Voters’ Day function on 25 January 2023 was also celebrated grandly throughout the country on the theme ‘Nothing Like Voting, I Vote for Sure’. At the National level function, President of India Droupadi Murmu graced the occasion. Further, Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister for Law and Justice was the Guest of Honour. Minister of State for Law and Justice S.P. Singh Baghel, seven former CECs, over 40 representatives from National and State Political parties, Heads/Deputy Heads of 12 Election Management Bodies, producer for ECI song Subhash Ghai along with celebrity singers, ECI National Icon Pankaj Tripathi and Niru Kumar were also present on the occasion.

Kumar in his address on the 13th National Voters’ Day acknowledged that the biggest asset of the Election Commission of India is the trust gained due to its professional conduct of elections over the years. He elaborated that while electors in India have increased from about 17 crores in 1951 to over 94 crores now and while the voter turnout was the highest ever at 67.4% in 2019 GE, the ECI is committed to motivating the remaining non-voters to come out to the polling station for more inclusive & participative elections.

On the occasion, an ECI song- “Main Bharat Hoon- Hum Bharat Ke Matdata Hain” produced by ECI in association with Subhash Ghai Foundation, was also screened. The song brings forth the power of the vote and celebrates the spirit of inclusive, accessible, ethical, participative and festive elections in the largest and most vibrant democracy of the world.

A pioneering effort to capture glimpses into the historic journey of Presidential Elections in the country, an ECI Publication ‘Electing the First Citizen- An illustrated Chronicle of India’s Presidential Elections’ was also presented to the Hon’ble President by Rajiv Kumar. The book, the first of its kind publication, throws light on the nuances of the Presidential Electoral system and associated constitutional provisions through the timelines of the past 16 Presidential elections.

Under the guidance of Kumar, ECI recognised cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and renowned actor Rajkummar Rao as its "National Icon"  to motivate voters for participation in the election.

14th NVD: "Nothing Like Voting, I Vote for Sure"

Under the guidance of Kumar, 14th NVD was celebrated on 25th January 2024 in continuation of the last years' theme "Nothing Like Voting, I Vote for Sure". Smt. Droupadi Murmu was the Chief Guest, Union Minister of State for Law and Justice (Independent Charge), Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal graced as Guest of Honour at the national function in New Delhi. The event was also attended by Heads and representatives of Election Management bodies viz. Maldives, Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan. A series of unique initiatives were launched in preparation for the Lok Sabha 2024 elections.

Kumar presented the first copy of the ECI Publication "ECI initiatives for General Elections 2024" to the President. The book provides a comprehensive overview of the initiatives undertaken by each division of the ECI to ensure free, fair, inclusive, accessible, and participatory conduct of elections.

A short voter awareness film "My Vote My Duty" produced by ECI in association with filmmaker Shri Raj Kumar Hirani was also screened. It features several celebrities such as Amitabh Bachchan, Vicky Kaushal, R. Madhavan, Raveena Tandon amongst others with their messages evoking the spirit of democracy and power of one vote.

On January 25, 2024, the Election Commission of India celebrated its 75th year of service to the Nation. To mark this momentous occasion, and in light of the 2024 Parliamentary Elections – a commemorative postage stamp themed "Inclusive Elections"  was released. A multi-media campaign "Chunav ka Parv, Desh Ka Garv" for voter education and awareness for the parliamentary elections 2024 was also launched.

Team 2024
In a first of its kind initiative and in the run up to 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the ECI organised a conference of all State CEOs at LBSNAA Mussoorie in April. The Conference objective was focused discussion on critical themes for smooth and successful conduct of forthcoming 2024 elections also establishing a connect at interpersonal level for easy coordination, understanding and delivery.

General Elections to Lok Sabha, 2024

Under the leadership of Kumar, the Election Commission conducted the 18th Lok Sabha Election. The election festivities were captured under its umbrella theme “Chunav ka Parv, Desh ka Garv” and began with the press conference on 16th March 2024. The elections marked a historic moment as India set a world record with 64.3 crore voters casting their votes. A total of 31.2 crore women voters participated, outnumbering the total voters of the 27 countries of the European Union in their last national election.

Under Kumar's guidance, ECI’s efforts over the past two years to include PVTG (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups) and other tribal communities in the electoral process have been successful, with these groups participating enthusiastically and confidently in the elections. The Election Commission, under meticulous planning, conducted peaceful elections even in states with histories of violence, including areas affected by Left-Wing Extremism, Manipur, Jammu & Kashmir, Tripura, and West Bengal. Deploying central forces, observers, and webcasting ensured a level playing field and intimidation-free voting.

Manipur saw smooth elections with special polling stations for internally displaced persons, and 102 villages in Bastar division voted at their village polling stations for the first time. Similarly in Jammu and Kashmir, especially in the Kashmir Valley, people came out in large numbers to vote, displaying confidence and faith in the electoral process, resulting in the highest turnout in four decades. The Commission also simplified the registration and voting process for Kashmiri migrant voters residing in camps in Jammu, Udhampur, and Delhi, including setting up 26 special polling stations. Effective training of election personnel resulted in near-zero repolls, with only 39 repolls nationwide, showcasing the Commission's success in ensuring violence and disruption-free elections. Kumar's zero-tolerance approach towards money power led to historic seizures of Rs 10,000 crore, preventing inducements. The Commission's efforts included collaboration with nearly 40 enforcement agencies, focusing on curbing the influence of cash and freebies. These measures ensured a level playing field, particularly benefiting smaller parties, and upheld the integrity of India's electoral process.

Furthermore, the Election Commission introduced a groundbreaking initiative under the leadership of Kumar in the Lok Sabha Election  by providing home voting facilities for the elderly (85+) and Persons with Disabilities for the first time. This remarkable effort deserves the highest praise, as it ensures that the senior citizens and differently-abled individuals can exercise their right to vote with dignity and convenience. The Election Commission's initiative not only acknowledges their invaluable contribution to strengthening the democracy but also sets a progressive example for inclusive electoral practices and society at large.