A retired IAS officer and a close confidante of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, K Kailashnathan has been given a one-year extension as Chief Principal Secretary to the Gujarat Chief Minister.
Kailashnathan, the incumbent Chief Principal Secretary to Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, was set to complete his tenure on May 31. Kailashnathan had retired from civil services in May 2013, while serving as Additional Chief Secretary to the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who had then re-employed him by creating the post of Chief Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister.
later, he was given an extension of one year by Modi’s successor and current Chief Minister of Gujarat, Anandiben Patel, in May 2014.
It was widely believed that after several of his juniors made it to the corridors of power in Delhi in Modi’s core team, Kailashnathan, a 1979-batch Gujarat cadre bureaucrat, was expected to make the cut. Some even discussed that he may also be placed as a Governor to some State.