Race for post of chief secretary begins

In the new year, the Devendra Fadnavis-led government is expected to be busy in the reshuffle of key posts of bureaucrats. This includes, even the Chief Secretary (CS), since Dinesh Kumar Jain, the current CS will retire on January 31. The bureaucrats have already started lobbying to grab this top post. Ajoy Mehta (IAS 1984 batch), the municipal commissioner of BrihanMumbai Municipal Commissioner (BMC), U P S Madan (IAS 1983 batch), the additional chief secretary (finance) and the Praveensingh Pardeshi, (IAS 1985 batch), is the additional chief secretary in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) are the top contenders. Fadnavis would prefer selecting on the basis of seniority, which then means, Madan is expected to be the 40th CS of the state. The last time round, Fadnavis favoured Jain over the senior most contender, Medha Gadgil and Sudhirkumar Shrivastav, for which he got a lot of flack. Madan is senior to Mehta and if he is selected, Madan would get to be the CS for a period of nine months, which is, till October 2019. Sources say, Mehta is eyeing the post, but according to the whispers in Mantralaya corridors, Mehta is not in the good books of Fadnavis. Pardeshi, the blue-eyed boy of CM, would ideally like to get promoted, but for Fadnavis to bypass seniority, he will have to incur the wrath of the bureaucrats as happened the last time round. Meanwhile, Mehta is expected to be transferred in the new year, since his tenure at BMC will be over in January. He is expected to take over the revenue department. Mehta is expected to be replaced by Nitin Kareer, who is the principal secretary of the Urban Development Department.