Prime minister Manmohan Singh is set to give a six-month extension to cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar. Insiders say that Singh wants to bring Rahul Khullar to the exalted position, but there are three officials much senior to the commerce secretary.

PM left for Ethiopia without making a successor plan of Chandrasekhar.For a senior position like cab sec a month of training is given to the new appointee as OSD. PM returns on Sunday and then only one fortnight is left for the new face. Since no appointment exercise in under way at the highest level of bureaucracy, it is taken for granted that Chandrasekhar get fourth extension.

UPA2 has completed seven years, but had just only two cabinet secretaries: BK Chaturvedi and Chandrasekhar.

The union cabinet is likely to amend the civil service rules further once PM returns from the foreign visit. If such a provision is incorporated, Chandrasekhar will go down in history for having served the longest as cabinet secretary, circumventing other contendors.

If he goes on for six more months, it would pave the way for Khullar to succeed Chandrasekhar.
Khullar, born in 1953, can serve up to 2013. There are two more seniors in the 1975 batch with Khullar - Rentala Chandrasekhar and Sindhushree Khullar.

The 1973 and 1974 IAS officers are unhappy with the UPA2 as the cabinet secretary position was stuck with the 1970 lucky batch. And there has been no forward movement.