Ajay Kallam's extension appears unlikely
Question mark over fate of all advisors sans Sajjala and G.V.D.
Hyderabad: Uncertainty prevails over the continuance of retired bureaucrat Ajay Kallam as Principal Advisor to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Though he was appointed on June 4, 2019, for a three-year term, Praveen Prakash, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, cut short the term of Kallam, along with that of several other advisors, to two years to effect uniformity in tenures among all the advisors.
The GO brought out by Praveen Prakash, apparently in consultation with the Chief Minister, fixed the tenure of all advisors for two years irrespective of their rank and status, and that too with a retrospective effect. This would mean the end of Ajay Kallam’s tenure by June 4 and sources told this correspondent that there was no proposal in the CMO so far to extend his tenure.
The tenures of three other advisors – Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, G.V.D. Krishna Mohan and M. Samuel – will also end by mid-June, and the fate of Samuel too hangs in balance. “Of the 25 or so advisors to either Chief Minister or government, Jagan Mohan Reddy utilises fully the services of only Krishna Mohan (communications) and Ramakrishna Reddy (public affairs) while for many others these posts are just ornamental,” sources close to the Chief Minister pointed out. The extension of term of only these two advisors is certain, they added.
Kallam, who played a vital role in the formative days of the YSR Congress regime in 2019, was appointed as the Principal Advisor with great fanfare.
The party leaders were also happy over the Chief Minister duly accommodating Kallam in recognition of his efforts to mobilise the support of government employees across the state in the 2019 assembly polls. He was made the head of the CMO and allotted several crucial subjects. But soon, he went out of the orbit of power in CMO, and the entry of Praveen Prakash further tilted the balance of power. Last year, the Chief Minister stripped all powers of Kallam by removing subjects he was handling in the CMO on the pretext that retired bureaucrats should not process files.