A month after retiring as principal secretary from the Gujarat Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), he has been catapulted as the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Puducherry. K. Kailashnanthan, once considered as the “eyes and ears” of Narendra Modi when he was the Gujarat CM has been chosen to work from Puducherry at a time when there is a growing differences within the ruling All India NR Congress-BJP coalition government. Kailashnanthan has replaced C.P. Radhakrishnan as the latter has been moved as the Maharashtra governor.
The 1979 batch I. Kuniyil Kailashnathan, popularly known as KK in bureaucratic circles, has been appointed as the LG of Puducherry, two days ahead of the union territory’s budget session on July 30. The 72-year-old Kailashnathan was the additional chief secretary of Gujarat for over a decade and held the post of the chief principal secretary to the CM.
The post was specially created for him when Modi served as the Gujarat chief minister and he continued to be in service even after Modi was elected as prime minister. KK, as per the bureaucratic circles, had been super powerful than the chief ministers like Anandi Ben, Vijay Rupani and Bhupendra Patel, who held office of the CM after Modi.
In the past 11 years, since 2013, Kailashnanthan, who hails from Kerala, got multiple extensions at regular intervals. He was the go-to man in Gujarat and was in charge of several pet projects of Modi like GIFT City, Narmada project and the Gandhi Ashram redevelopment. Considered to be very close to Modi, Kailashnathan was the bridge between political circles and the bureaucracy. Though he hails from Kerala, he did his schooling and graduation in Tamil Nadu. He is fluent in Tamil and has in-depth knowledge of the politics in the Tamil-speaking states.
Kailashnanthan’s transfer and posting as LG of Puducherry comes at a time when the union territory is witnessing political uncertainty due to the growing indifference within the ruling coalition. The BJP MLAs, including A. John Kumar had recently called on the party leadership in Delhi saying, all the MLAs will have to be elevated as ministers on a rotational basis.