It's quite risky to speculate about the appointments in current regime. The choice of chief secretary comes with multiple proposition. While the name should be acceptable to state government, it must have the stamping of centre as well.
These days like politics, bureaucratic posting is also the game of possibilities.
With chief secretary Sudhansh Pant opting to retire from central government, Rajasthan will have to pick an able officer to lead the bureaucratic force. Sudhansh Pant has been appointed as secretary social justice and empowerment at centre. He is scheduled to join next month replacing his batchmate Amit Yadav.
Among those senior to Sudhansh Pant, three officers stake the claim. While the senior most officer Subodh Agrawal retiring next month and Shubhra Singh retiring in January next year, only V Srinivas, another 1989 batch officer, is left in the contention. He is currently serving at centre as secretary administrative reforms. He is due to retire in August 2026. He may be given a look while selecting the chief secretary. He has been on central deputation since December 2018. He had been on central deputation thrice and also had foreign stint ay the International Monetary Fund.
Among officers junior to Sudhansh Pant, Abhay Kumar tops the list. He is a 1992 batch officer, currently serving as additional chief secretary water resources department. There were couple of occasions on which Kumar had the charge of chief secretary when Sudhansh Pant was on leave.
After Kumar, Rajat Mishra (1992 batch) and Tanmay Kumar (1993 batch) are on the list. They are currently serving as fertiliser secretary and forest secretary respectively at centre. They may not be willing to come as chief secretary.
The next in the list is Akhil Arora. He is also 1993 batch officer, currently serving as additional chief secretary PHED. He also has good chance of becoming the chief secretary. He has good rapport with chief minister and CMO.
With all permutation and combination, the list of probables doesn't go beyond this name. In all likelihood, the next chief secretary should be one of the faces.
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