Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s successor in Gujarat, Anandiben Patel, is yet to appoint her personal staff in Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), Modi has shifted his six trusted officials from the Gujarat CMO to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Two more are expected to join the PMO in near future.
Modi’s most trusted personal assistants — Om Prakash Singh, Dinesh Thakur and Tanmay Mehta — were shifted to Delhi even before Modi was sworn-in as PM. The trio is with Modi ever since he became Gujarat Chief Minister. Singh and Thakur belong to Allahabad and Uttarakhand, respectively, while Mehta hails from Patan in North Gujarat.
Most interesting posting from the Gujarat CMO to the PMO is that of 70-year-old Jagdish Thakker, former officer of Gujarat Information Department. To the credit of Thakker, he has worked with as many as eight Gujarat Chief Ministers since 1989, that too from four different political parties — Congress, Janata Dal, BJP and Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP).
He first worked with Amarsinh Chaudhry, the Congress Chief Minister. later, he was retained by other CMs, including Chimanbhai Patel (Janata Dal), Chhabildas Mehta, Keshubhai Patel, Suresh Mehta, Shankersinh Vaghela, Dilip Parikh, and Narendra Modi.
Thakker retired in 2004 and since then he is getting extensions because of his ability to handle the media efficiently. Thakker, who began his careers decades ago with a Gujarati daily and later joined the State Information department, follows Modi like his shadow. The soft-spoken septuagenarian is set to play bigger role for his master in the national capital.
Another important man, Hiren Joshi, who hails from Rajasthan, is joining the PMO as Officer on Special Duty. Joshi is an IT professional and he would manage Modi’s social media related work.
Though there are possibilities of a few Gujarat-cadre IAS officials to move from Gujarat to Delhi, Modi’s most trusted sergeant Arvind Kumar Sharma is the first bureaucrat, who has been appointed as joint secretary in the PMO. The 1988-batch officer joined the Gujarat CMO in October 2001 and got two promotions as Secretary and Principal Secretary in 2004 and 2013 respectively.
During his long association with Modi, Sharma handled important departments, including industry, corporate issues, and foreign dignitaries, and also travelled across the world for Vibrant Gujarat Summit from 2003 up to 2013. He also headed the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB) as its chief executive officer.
Two others bureaucrats likely to join the PMO are K Kailasnathan and GC Murmu. Kailashnathan, popularly known as KK, is a 1979-batch IAS officer, who got appointment as Chief Principal Secretary in the CMO after he retired as Additional Chief Secretary in 2013. 1985-batch official GC Murmu’s name is also doing rounds for the appointment in the PMO. As of now, he is appointed in the Gujarat CMO as principal secretary.