Next Chief Secretary will be Siddaramaiah's pick

Bengaluru: The state Cabinet on Wednesday authorised Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to take a call on who should succeed Mr Arvind Jadhav , whose term ends on June 30 , as the new Chief Secretary.

Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, T.B. Jayachandra said officers in the running for the post were Mr Upendra Tripathi, the seniormost IAS officer from Karnataka , now on Central deputation, and with only four months of  his term left, Mr Subhaschandra Kuntia, also on central deputation with one year and five months still to go of his tenure, Ms Ratna Prabha , with one year and nine months still to serve, and Mr S K Pattanayak, with two years and three months of his service still left.

According to sources, however, Ms Ratna Prabha could beat the others to the post as both Mr Tripathi and Mr Kuntia are  not keen on returning to Karnataka and she also enjoys a good rapport with the Chief Minister thanks to the success of the Global Investors Meet  in February this year.

Mr Siddaramaiah is believed to have been keen on appointing her even after Mr Kaushik Mukherjee retired as Chief Secretary, ignoring the seniority of other officers.  But with another officer, V Umesh,  vying for the post with the help of Lingayat mutts, he opted for Mr Arvind Jadhav, the seniormost officer at that time. But now Ms Ratna Prabha is fully qualified for the post even in terms of seniority, they point out.