Desh Ka Garv: A Look at the Leaders of Election Commission of India

As the largest democratic process in the globe, with over 960 million eligible voters, the 2024 Lok Sabha election, draws to an end we thought it was the right time to adulate the people who managed the ECI.

In total over 7 phases, there were 642 million voters representing overall turnout of 65.79%, of which 312 million were women making it the highest participation by women in the electorate. To put it in perspective 642 million is 1.5 times the voters of G7 countries and 2.5 times voters of 27 countries in the European Union.

In a recent press conference head of CEC Rajiv Kumar lauded the efforts of the workers of the Election Commission and made a tongue-in-cheek comment about the EVMs and how they deserved some rest until they can be abused in the next election.

Barring a few incidents most of the voting took place in a smooth and organized fashion.

In total there were 5.5 million EVMs deployed across 1.05 million number of polling booths over the 543 constituencies in an election that featured a total of 8,360 candidates.

The largest delegation of 75 independent global observers from 23 countries witnessed the marvel of the election.

There were totally 39 polls that had to be held again due to disturbances, compared to 540 in the 2019 election, and of 39, 25 were in 2 states only. Notably the Anantnag-Rajourie seat polling had to be rescheduled because of disturbances.

Instances of EVM malfunctioning and removal of candidates belonging to the opposition were reported throughout the elections. On 18 April, the Supreme Court asked the ECI to look into reported EVM malfunctioning in Kerala. 150 EVMs were replaced in Assam after reported malfunctioning. In Varanasi, about 33 nominations challenging Narendra Modi were rejected, of which 8 applicants claimed that the process was rigged in favour of the BJP

There were also over 10,000 Cr seized during the elections which was a record seizure.

So here we have the Election Commission:

Mr Rajiv Kumar – appointed as the 25^th CEC in 2022. Former IAS officer and Finance Secretary.

Mr Gyanesh Kumar – appointed to the election commission in2024, formerly the Cooperation Secretary of India

Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu – former bureaucrat also appointed in 2024 to the election commission

And the millions of polling booth agents, and checkers, police officers and independent correspondents who made this a fruitful exercise.