Bhubaneswar: After confusion and vacillations in the initial few months of coming to power, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has managed to put in place his core team of bureaucrats to help him implement his plans and steer the government.
Team Majhi as of now is small with four-five Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers and a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. The core team is led by Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja, a 1990 batch Odisha cadre IAS officer, who was previously the Union agriculture secretary.
Ten months into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, however, the crucial post of principal secretary to chief minister has remained vacant. In fact, the post has not been filled up since 2019 after Rajesh Verma, the then principal secretary to former chief minister Naveen Patnaik, moved to the Centre.
There has also been some churning in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), with some former officers like R.Vineel Krishna, who served as special secretary, removed a month after Majhi took charge. Some initial appointees like Arindam Dakua, who was the private secretary to Majhi, was transferred after seven months. Dakua, a 2011 batch IAS officer, was made the director, municipal administration.
“Because of his limited administrative experience, the CM is also taking some time to pick and choose the right team. Though the CM gets guidance from the Prime Minister’s Office but by and large, there is no interference in day-to-day governance-related matters. That his core team handles,” two senior officials in the Odisha Secretariat told ThePrint.
In fact, chief secretary Ahuja is said to be a Centre’s pick, one of the officers said.
“Considering that much of the bureaucracy had worked under the Naveen Patnaik government for over two decades, with many becoming quite close to the then ruling dispensation, it was not easy to put in place a team of officers, who CM Majhi could trust,” a senior Odisha cadre IAS officer told ThePrint.
The officer added that it was but natural for Majhi to be wary. “For most of the 24 years that the BJD government had been in power, the bureaucracy in Odisha including senior officers had become used to taking orders from just one man, V.K. Pandian, the former private secretary and the most trusted aide of Naveen Patnaik. They have not worked democratically for long,” the officer explained.
Majhi also brought in a handful of officers from the Odisha Administrative Service, whom he had known from earlier days, to the CMO, the second officer said.
A look at the officers of Majhi’s core team
Manoj Ahuja, chief secretary
Ahuja was among the first batch of senior civil servants, who was prematurely repatriated to his home cadre from Delhi soon after the Majhi government took charge in June 2024. Before taking charge as chief secretary on June 30, Ahuja was the Union agriculture secretary.
With over three decades in the IAS, the 61-year-old brings rich experience of handling complex and challenging governance issues. Known for his impeccable integrity and administrative acumen, Ahuja’s importance in the scheme of things can be gauged from the fact that he got a one-year extension before he was due to retire on 31 December.
A native of Haryana, Ahuja studied mechanical engineering from Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala and an MBA from Panjab University. He also has a Master’s degree in public administration from Harvard. He has held several key portfolios in the Centre, including as CBSE chairman and in the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, where he served for12 years in separate stints.
Prakash Mishra, adviser to CM
Prakash Mishra, former DG, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), is the adviser to CM Majhi, dealing with law and order and other crucial issues. His rank is equivalent to a cabinet minister. A political appointee, the 1977 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer has previously served as the Odisha DGP between 2012 and 2014 during Naveen Patnaik’s rule.
With a name for being an extremely efficient officer, Mishra has served in various key positions in the security establishment at the Centre. He was the DG, National Disaster Response Force and had also served as additional DG, National Investigation Agency.
Mishra, a second Odisha cadre IAS officer said, has been advising Majhi on key law and order- related matters and has the CM’s ears.
Sources in the Odisha government said that Mishra had fallen out with the Naveen Patnaik dispensation. The Patnaik government had in fact registered a vigilance case against him. He was subsequently cleared of all the charges.
Mishra joined the BJP in 2019. He had also contested the Lok Sabha election from Cuttack but lost the election.
Majhi’s predecessor Naveen Patnaik had also appointed a set of retired bureaucrats as advisers.
Nikunja Bihari Dhal, addl chief secretary to CM
Dhal, a 1993 batch IAS officer, was appointed as additional chief secretary to CM Majhi last June. An honest officer, Dhal was also empanelled as secretary last year.
While Dhal was among the first senior IAS officers to have been moved to the Majhi CMO, government sources told ThePrint that there is a likelihood of him going on a central deputation.
“He wants to move to the Centre. If he goes, the two top posts of principal and additional secretaries in the CMO will fall vacant,” the IAS officer quoted earlier said.
Dhal has largely remained in the state barring a five-year stint at the Centre. He was Odisha’s chief electoral officer before coming to the CMO.
Manoj Kumar Sahoo, private secretary to CM
Sahoo, a 2006 AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories) cadre IAS officer, was appointed Majhi’s private secretary in January following the transfer of his predecessor Arindam Dakua.
Senior officials in the Odisha government said that Sahoo is considered to be close to Majhi. “Though an Odia, Sahoo is not an Odisha cadre bureaucrat. He got an inter-cadre deputation to the state in November last year for a period of three years,” one of the officials said.
Sahoo, a native of Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district, is a special secretary-rank officer. When he was appointed as private secretary, a junior position, an Odisha government notification was issued to clarify that the post of private secretary to the CM is “equivalent in status and responsibility to the post of special secretary provided in the IAS cadre of the state.”
Before coming to Odisha, Sahoo served as the deputy election commissioner in the Election Commission of India.
Anupam Saha, additional secretary to CM
The 2012 batch Odisha cadre IAS officer was appointed additional secretary to CM Majhi in July 2024. Saha was earlier posted as the collector of Jagatsinghpur district and is said to be a sincere officer.
Besides the IAS, the CMO has a bunch of officers from the Odisha Administrative Services. Government officials say as a fourth-time MLA, Majhi has known some of the OAS officers, including former Keonjhar sub-collector Trilochan Mohanty, in his team.
Mohanty, the first officer to enter the CMO, was appointed joint secretary to the CM, just five days after Majhi took oath of office.
Slow transition
Though like other governance matters even the bureaucratic reshuffles are happening slowly, officers admit things are changing. “The CM is building his new team,” one of the officers quoted earlier said.
Some overhauling has also happened. Since the Majhi government took charge, the CM has moved out some prominent IAS officers perceived to be close to the previous dispensation, one of the officers quoted earlier said.
A month after coming to power, G. Mathivathanan, a 1994 batch Odisha cadre IAS officer, who was the housing and urban development secretary, was shifted as DG (Training Coordination) of Gopabandhu Academy of Administration in Bhubaneswar.
Like Pandian, Mathivathanan is a Tamilian and was considered close to him.
R. Vineel Krishna, another officer considered close to Pandian, was moved out of CMO, where he was special secretary. Krishna was transferred to the land records and settlement department as commissioner.
The 2005 batch IAS had also served as sports secretary and is credited with the successful implementation of some key sports infrastructure projects during the Patnaik regime, including the hockey stadium in Rourkela.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Odisha turns a different shade under Mohan Majhi. How CM’s trying to shake off predecessor’s shadow