"First step towards national service is voting," says CEC Gyanesh Kumar

Madurai (Tamil Nadu) [India], February 26 (ANI): Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar has urged all eligible citizens of India to register as electors and participate in the electoral process. He emphasised that voting is the first step towards national service.
"The first step towards national service is voting. All citizens of India who have completed 18 years of age should become electors and should always vote. The Election Commission of India will always stand with the voters," CEC Kumar told reporters.
He added, "I had come to Madurai and reviewed the electoral process work here. The Chief Electoral Officer was also there, and the District Election Officers and senior police officers were also there. They are doing good work, and I wish all the electors of Madurai all the best..."
Meanwhile, on Monday, The Election Commission of India (ECI) will organise a conference of Chief Electoral Officers of States and Union Territories on March 4-5 at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) in New Delhi.
Gyanesh Kumar called all State CEOs to brainstorm and learn from each other's experiences during a two-day conference at IIDEM.
Over 100 participants will attend the conference, including CEOs of all States/UTs, DEOs, and EROs, who comprise the key functionaries involved in election processes.
Earlier, newly appointed CEC Gyanesh Kumar had assumed charge on February 19 and, in his message to the voters, said that the first step for nation-building was voting.
Gyanesh Kumar is a 1988-batch IAS officer from the Kerala cadre and is senior to the two other commissioners on the three-member panel that was led by Rajiv Kumar.
The other commissioner on the panel is Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, an officer from the Uttarakhand cadre and Vivek Joshi. The other newly appointed election commissioner Vivek Joshi, also assumed charge as the Election Commissioner in pursuance of Ministry of Law & Justice, Gazette notification dated 17.02.2025. He is a 1989 batch officer of the IAS of Haryana cadre. (ANI)