New Delhi (12.12.2023): It left everyone awestruck when Mohanlal Yadav (MLA from Ujjain) was declared to be Madhya Pradesh CM. It underlines yet again the well-established fact that unpredictability and element of surprise have been the hall mark of the New Delhi establishment post 2014. But in the context of Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra (IAS: 1984: UP) the unpredictability appears most predictable. At least everyone in the bureaucratic parlance appears unanimous that Mishra’s third extension in service, scheduled to end this month, is inevitable and may be affected in next couple of days.
Unique framework may continue:
The unique and rarest of its kind arrangement that was devised for Durga Shanker Mishra the then Union Secretary for Urban Affairs to appoint him the Chief Secretary of U.P. in December 2021. People in the power corridors are nearly unanimous that the Centre may continue Mishra as CS with the third successive extension in service beyond December 31, 2023.
Insiders say that contrary to the two successive extensions in service (Dec. 2021 & Dec. 2022), the third one may be for six months only. In the event of Mishra getting another fresh lease of career, it would be his second successive extension as CS and the third successive extension in service.
What if he gets extension?
As usual political rivals may approach the Supreme Court the way they did in the case of ED chief S K Mishra and also in case of Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar (IAS: 1987: UT) but how far the remark made by the court that if the government doesn’t have any other officer to take up the job will work is seriously doubtful. The Centre managed to have its way in both the cases so far and is likely to extent services of another senior officer yet again. This could be a trap for opposition parties to drive them away from the real issues.
Will Mishra contest LS Polls 2024?
This is what a section in crucial quarters believes. Contrary to the theory of ‘successive extension’ political sources say that post 31 December, D S Mishra may take a plunge in politics and may contest Lok Sabha Polls in 2024 from Dewariya in UP. Even though it appears a remote possibility because Centre may not set him free till the Mission 2024 is accomplished but either way he is destined and constrained to follow the decisions of New Delhi establishment.
(By Rakesh Ranjan)
