Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, on a visit to Aligarh on Saturday, held a review meeting of four districts. He monitored the planning for voter awareness, the number of current voters, and registration of those above 18 years of age as voters.

Gyanesh Kumar, who reached Aligarh days after assuming the office as The chief election commissioner, directed officials to ensure that every youth should be linked to the voter list after completing 18 years of age. Besides, an awareness campaign should be carried out to register the voters left out in the process.

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“BLO should reach out to every household so that voters could be apprised about the process,” he instructed. However, the new CEC declined to answer the questions arising from the efficacy of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the conduct of elections. He just said, ” Election Commission was always with the voters. Programmes should be run to make women aware of this for increasing the voting percentage of women.”

He further said that quality CCTV cameras should be used at booths so that the entire process could be better monitored. Surprisingly , Kasganj DM Megha Rupam, who was present in the meeting, is the daughter of Gyanesh Kumar. The daughter welcomed her Chief Election Commissioner father Gyanesh Kumar with a smile and handed him a bouquet before the meeting. The review meeting went on for about two hours during which the CEC interacted with the DMs of Hathras, Etah, Kasganj and Aligarh.

He asked Megha Rupam about her plans for voter awareness in her district and the registration of all 18-year-olds. Replying to all her father’s queries satisfactorily, she asserted, “We have to run this campaign on a very wide scale.” After the meeting, the CEC and his daughter had a private conversation. After the meeting was over, DM Megha left for Soro in a car with her father.

At Soro they visited the Lord Varaha temple. The CEC Gyanesh Kumar, a 1988 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre , retired from the post of Union Cooperation Secretary on January 31,2024 before being made the election commissioner on March 14, 2024. Now, under the new rules, he has got the responsibility of the chief election commissioner of the country on February 19, 2025.