Somesh Kumar was spotted recently with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at his Aurangabad public meeting.
Somesh Kumar was appointed chief advisor to Telangana chief minister. (Supplied)
Former Telangana chief secretary Somesh Kumar, who was spotted with Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao at his Aurangabad (Maharashtra) public meeting recently, was appointed as his chief advisor on Tuesday, 9 May.
His posting, valid for three years, carries a Cabinet minister’s rank. The chief minister is understood to have approved the appointment. Somesh Kumar belonged to the 1989 batch of IAS officers.
He is expected to take an active part in helping Chief Minister KCR, as he is popularly known, as he pursues his dream of playing a key role in politics at the national level. The chief minister is already on the move, spreading the party’s wings in other states.
Somesh Kumar, who was chief secretary of Telangana since December 2019, demitted office in January this year after the Telangana High Court asked him to join the Andhra Pradesh government.
Ever since the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) filed a petition in the Telangana High Court in 2017 against the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) decision to retain Somesh Kumar in Telangana after the division of the state, the sword of Damocles was hanging over him.
As soon as the high court dismissed the CAT’s order in January this year, the DOPT, within hours, asked Somesh Kumar to pack his bags and move to Andhra Pradesh. His sudden exit benefitted IAS officer A Santhi Kumar, who the chief minister appointed as Somesh Kumar’s successor.
Somesh Kumar reported to Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on arriving in Andhra Pradesh, but even after a wait of several weeks, he was not given a posting “commensurate with his rank and experience”.
He later applied to the Centre for Voluntary Retirement from Service (VRS).
His appointment as the Telangana chief minister’s chief advisor rings the curtain down on the speculation that he might be joining the BRS. The speculation mill was fed by his participation in KCR’s Aurangabad public meeting on 26 April.
He flew to Aurangabad along with the chief minister from Hyderabad and was seated on the dais from where the KCR addressed the crowd. KCR had even mentioned Somesh Kumar’s name in his speech.
There was also speculation that he might be appointed as Telangana’s special representative in New Delhi. Somesh Kumar happens to be the officer who has served Telangana longest as the chief secretary.
When Somesh Kumar was the chief secretary of the state, the Opposition parties kept gunning for him.
BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar said it was not only unethical, but also illegal, to keep Somesh Kumar in Telangana and entrust him with important departments, especially as he was allotted to Andhra Pradesh at the time of the bifurcation of the state in 2014.
Somesh Kumar was promoted, bypassing several IAS officers who were allotted to Telangana.
State Congress president A Revanth Reddy said Somesh Kumar was one among the top 15 IAS officers in Telangana who belonged to Bihar and that he had been opposing his continuance as the chief secretary.
He had even sought the CBI investigation into the decisions he had taken while designing Dharani, administering CCLA and RERA.
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