The tremors of the Samajwadi Party’s rout in the Lok Sabha elections were felt in the administrative circles on Saturday when Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Javed Usmani was replaced by Alok Ranjan.
Mr. Ranjan, who was Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner and Agriculture Production Commissioner, assumed charge with an assurance that he would infuse good governance in the State.
Mr. Usmani was not present in the Chief Secretary’s office to hand over charge to the new incumbent. The replaced official, who until recently was being talked about as the next Cabinet Secretary, has not been given any fresh posting. Mr. Usmani is a 1978 batch IAS officer of the U.P. cadre, as is Mr. Ranjan.
Mr. Usmani’s ouster came unannounced and he was taken aback. He was conducting a meeting of the board of directors of the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, when a source tipped him on his removal. Thereafter, he left for home, according to informed sources. When the SP government was formed in 2012, Mr. Usmani, who then was in the World Bank, was handpicked by the party supremo Mulayam Singh to become the Chief Secretary. He was the second Muslim after Mahmood Butt to hold the post in the State, though the decision to bring him to Uttar Pradesh, it was said, was Mr. Singh’s way of giving a political message to Muslims, who had voted overwhelmingly for the SP in the last Assembly elections. Talking to The Hindu ,, the new Chief Secretary said his priority would be maintenance of law and order and ensuring proper power supply.
