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Sushilkumar Shinde, home minister in the United Progressive Alliance government, didn't have the best of equations with former home secretary R K Singh. Shinde seldom consulted Singh, it is said. A senior minister in the Narendra Modi government and his secretary are said to have a similarly frosty relationship. The minister, who handles two separate departments, each with its own set of bureaucrats, rarely consults one of the secretaries. The favoured secretary had spent several years in the cadre of the state to which the minister belongs, before being shifted to the cadre of the neighbouring state when it was formed. Singh joined the Bharatiya Janata Party after retirement and is now a Lok Sabha Member of Parliament. It remains to be seen if the out-of-favour secretary would be as fortunate.