Calcutta Aug. 26: Railway minister Mamata Banerjee has withdrawn her own recommendation to the Prime Minister’s Office for the appointment of a particular IAS officer as her private secretary, restarting a pan-India race that involves bureaucrats and factions of her own party that regard the post crucial because of the power and privileges associated with it.
Returning to Delhi after her meeting last week with the captains of industry in Calcutta, Mamata wrote to the PMO cancelling the recommendation she had made for N. Manju Prasad, a former Bengal cadre IAS officer now belonging to Karnataka, Railway Board sources said.
Known for a famous switch of cadre — Bengal to Karnataka — by taking the issue to the Supreme Court sometime ago, Prasad is believed to have managed to propel himself into the fray through Mamata’s trusted aide Mukul Roy, also the junior Union shipping minister and Trinamul Congress secretary.
Roy, however, denied today any knowledge of, or involvement in, the affair.
“As late as last week, we were advised to be ready to start interacting with him (Prasad) as her man on the job,” said a top Railway Board official in the know of the goings-on regarding the appointment. “Suddenly, we find the race has begun afresh with heavyweights on the stage.”
Since she assumed charge of the ministry two months ago, Mamata has been scouting across the country for a bureaucrat who can be assigned to run her office, leaving her enough time to chase the objective of having Bengal’s ruling Left ousted from office in the 2011 Assembly elections.
During her last stint as railway minister in the NDA government, Mamata’s private secretary was Sunil Chaturvedi, a former Bengal cadre IAS officer who, with help from the likes of Sudheendra Kulkarni, the erstwhile officer-on-special-duty in the PMO, crafted policies as well as shot trouble for her.
After quitting the BJP, Kulkarni is again back with Mamata, who has put him on an important ministerial committee. But despite frantic wooing, Chaturvedi is unlikely to return, busy as he is heading an Indian multinational.
This time, in search of a faceless minder, Mamata has “informally” interviewed nearly a dozen bureaucrats, mostly from the Bengal cadre. Some of them are regarded close to the ruling Left.
But she has not been able to zero in on anyone as she apparently does not want to be caught on the wrong foot with the appointment.
“We are facing a tricky situation,” said an official associated with the search.
“People (IAS officers) are approaching us everyday either directly or through lobbies or mentors, but they are not the ones she would be interested in.”
According to the buzz, among the aspirants who have had a session with Mamata is at least one senior IAS officer known for his proximity to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
Mamata, it is believed, had come close to taking a decision in favour of this bureaucrat, who enjoys the backing of a couple of senior Trinamul leaders, only to alter her position in view of the Bhattacharjee links.
In an unpublicised move early this month, the Bhattacharjee government managed to retain the bureaucrat in Bengal by having him taken off the gunsight of the CPM’s Calcutta district committee and relocated in the urban development ministry under Asok Bhattacharya.
Although a favourite of the chief minister, the bureaucrat has been scouting Delhi for a suitable posting, especially since he has become a target of the powerful CPM Calcutta unit. Party leaders in Calcutta have been lobbying for several changes in the civic administration ahead of next year’s crucial Calcutta Municipal Corporation elections.
To get Mamata’s job, what must an aspirant have?
Going by the complexion of the interviews held so far, Mamata is looking for someone who has no love lost for the Left, has a squeaky clean image and the skill to navigate through choppy politics, is comfortable handling political heavyweights at the national level and doesn’t mind a demanding boss.
Kulkarni ‘switch’
Trinamul has dismissed as “baseless speculation” reports suggesting that former BJP ideologue Sudheendra Kulkarni may join the party, arguing that his links with Mamata’s rail ministry predate his resignation from the saffron party.
Television channels this afternoon cited Kulkarni’s presence on a railway reforms panel headed by Ficci secretary-general Amit Mitra to suggest growing proximity to Mamata. But rail ministry sources clarified that Kulkarni had been named on the panel in July in Mamata’s railway budget, well before his resignation from the BJP.
Trinamul sources also claimed that the party had not made any overtures to Kulkarni.
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