India, Feb. 19 -- Gyanesh Kumar took over as the 26th chief election commissioner (CEC) on Wednesday a day after the Supreme Court agreed to consider expedited hearing of pleas challenging the validity of a 2023 law for the appointment of CEC and election commissioners (ECs)

President Droupadi Murmu on Monday night appointed Kumar, a 1988 batch Kerala-cadre bureaucrat who retired as the Union cooperation secretary before being appointed as an EC in 2023, as the CEC amid resistance from the main Opposition Congress.

Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, a member of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led selection committee, on Monday objected to the timing of the meeting to pick the CEC citing the pendency of the pleas ...