Speculations rife on next chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh

With more and more senior officers in the state believing that a change in the government is almost inevitable, the speculation about who will be the next chief secretary and who will make it to the coveted posts in the chief minister's secretariat is now doing the rounds in the state's bureaucracy.

Old relations with prospective chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy have become a discussion point among both senior bureaucrats and other government officers these days.

Some senior IAS officers have been tipped for the coveted chief secretary's post and principal secretary to the chief minister among other posts.

It is said that several lower cadre officers have already started jockeying for the post of the principal secretary and similar jobs in the new government.

There is also talks of bringing an Andhra Pradesh cadre officer who is serving as secretary in the Government of India as chief secretary of the state if the Congress comes to power, as he is considered as the senior most.

An officer who is of the rank of the special chief secretary in the revenue department has also been tipped for the top job.

But the officers in the chief minister's secretariat are still hopeful of N Chandrababu Naidu coming back to power even though with a reduced majority.

But strangely, several of them have been extra cautious this time in letting their preferences known publicly.

During the 1999 Assembly elections, several officers, including some police officers were seen queuing up at Rajasekhar Reddy 's residence thinking that Congress was going to form the government.

These people had burnt their fingers for their 'over enthusiasm' with Chandrababu Naidu forming the government in 1999.

Past experience and the current public posture of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on its winning prospects is sending jitters down the spines of many government officials, though they all feel that a Congress victory is certain this time.

More than ever in the past, government employees and especially those who were drafted for election duty have been accused of favouring the Congress party and its allies in the polling stations by the ruling party leaders.

Industries minister K Vidyadhar Rao had recently gone on record saying that if Telugu Desam candidates lose in the election with a narrow margin, that would be just because of the hostile government employees.

Unending meetings, scolding officers and government employees in public, frequent suspensions at the lower level and the talk of a reduction in the retirement age are seen as reasons that could have pushed the government employees to work against the ruling TDP.