Centre appoints state chief secretaries

The recent appointment of Sudhansh Pant, 1991 batch IAS officer as Rajasthan chief secretary and giving another extension to Uttar Pradesh CS DS Mishra suggests a trend that chief secretaries of BJP-ruled states being picked mostly from the secretaries posted in Union government.

However, from 2014 to 2019, the trend was different, in some cases then serving chief secretaries were called for central postings.

In first tenure of Modi government, the then Odisha chief secretary JK Mohapatra was posted as fertiliser secretary, then Punjab CS Rakesh Singh was also brought to Centre as secretary in Steel Ministry.


Similarly, West Bengal CS Sanjay Mitra was appointed as Road and Transport Secretary in the first Modi government during 2014-2019.

In the second Modi government, on several ocassions the secretaries deputed at Centre were sent to state.

In December 2021, then Urban Development Secretary DS Mishra was appointed as Uttar Pradesh CS and has got three extensions till now and is set to be longest serving top official of the politically most crucial state.

Now, there is buzz that a new chief secretary of Madhya Pradesh may also be sent from Delhi.