Pulok Chatterjee, a long time loyalist of the Gandhi family and Dr Manmohan Singh, is likely to succeed K M Chandrasekhar as the Union Cabinet Secretary from January 2010.
Chandrasekhar will complete his two-year tenure in June, but he is likely to be given an extension till December.
Chatterjee has served as the district magistrate of Rae Bareli and later worked with Sonia Gandhi, when she was the Leader of Opposition, during the National Democratic Alliance regime. When the United Progressive Alliance came to power, Chatterjee was made the Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office.
Chatterjee, a senior Indian Administrative Service officer from the 1974 batch, is presently serving as an Executive Director in World Bank. However, his accreditation, which has been granted till 2011, can be withdrawn by the sponsoring government with the prior consent of the Board of Directors.
This process is likely to take six months.
However, Chatterjee's candidature to the top bureaucratic slot has raised quite a few eyebrows, as he would be superseding 75 senior officials.
