When Telangana Chief Minister appointed senior IAS officer Somesh Kumar as the new Chief Secretary of Telangana today following the retirement of present chief secretary SK Joshi, it raised many a eyebrows both in government and bureaucratic circles.
This is because there were over a dozen IAS officers who are senior to Somesh Kumar.
Despite this, KCR overlooked the seniority of all these officers and chose Somesh Kumar as new CS.
Why KCR opted for Somesh bypassing several other senior most officers like Ajay Mishra, BP Acharya, Binoy Kumar etc? is the question being hotly debated now.
According to TRS sources, KCR wanted someone as new CS who had a longer service so that he has good coordination with the CS to implement TRS government’s welfare and development programmes effectively without any hitch for the next four years. Somesh still has four years service left, while other officers who are senior to him are due for retirement in few months.
Incidentally, KCR’s term as CM will end in December 2023. Somesh’s term as CS will also end in December 2023.
For this reason, KCR had opted for Somesh and he does not want to change the CSs frequently till December 2023 Assembly elections, which will affect the administration.