Close to Didi,an officer who causes IAS,IPS veterans heartburn

Last month,Mamata wrote to Islam wishing him on his birthday. Islam replied with a 76-page letter,most of it about Sanyal and his attitude. Sanyal had once asked him to leave the chief minister’s office,he wrote,besides referring to several instances from their railway ministry days during NDA rule,an indication of how far back their rivalry goes.

Sanyal,a CSS officer of the 1978 batch,rose to joint secretary in the Ministry of Food Processing Industries in June 2009. From 2009 to 2011,he served under Mamata Banerjee as officer on special duty in the railway ministry. A couple of months after she took over as chief minister,Mamata inducted him into her core bureaucratic team,a surprise given that all the speculation had been about which IAS officers would be transferred to Bengal from central postings.

There were reports that then chief secretary Samar Ghosh was reluctant to have Sanyal appointed to such a post,which he felt should be given to someone from the IAS cadre. Ghosh reportedly suggested Sanyal could serve as an officer on special duty in the Chief Minister’s Office.

A few senior officials at Writers’ Buildings recalled when Sanyal had been an upper division clerk in the Union government. He had caught the eye of A B A Ghani Khan Choudhury,former railway minister,who was looking for an Bengali officer in the ministry. It was then that Sanyal’s rise through the ranks began.

Sanyal once served as typist and secretary to G D Gautama,a senior IAS officer in the railway ministry. When Gautama became home secretary in Mamata’s government,Sanyal was virtually his “boss” in the CMO,Writers’ Buildings sources said. They said Gautam “did not pay much attention” to his former subordinate. He was subsequently transferred as information commissioner. “Sanyal was instrumental in getting Gautama transferred from the position of home secretary,” said a home department official.

Sanyal was not available for comment about what others have to say about him. He keeps himself inaccessible to journalists,including those who are considered to be on good terms with Mamata. “Sanyal is almost like a shadow of Didi. He remains by her side on every visit she makes to the districts,” said a Trinamool Congress MP,who did not wish to be named. “Sanyal’s power derives from the trust that Didi has shown in him,right from their days in the railway ministry.”

IAS officers at Writers’ say Sanyal’s closeness to Mamata insulates him from any possible bureaucratic manoeuveres by the IAS lobby. In the power corridors,Sanyal is known as the man who deals with investment companies,besides formalising the transfers of police officials and departmental secretaries in consultation with the chief minister.

“A phone call from Sanyal regarding posting of any officer starting from an inspectors to an IPS officer is as good as an order,one that has to be complied with,” said a top officer in the police directorate. “Sanyal is the person whom most bureaucrats want to keep in good humour.”