For more than five years now, a bunch of IAS officers of Kerala cadre have been calling shots, occupying top echelons of bureaucracy. But the Kerala Club seems to be on the way out, as more and more officers of the UP cadre are cornering key positions.

The trend is about to get a boost as many perceive these are the last days of the Maya raj and some of her trusted IAS officers are making a beeline for a deputation in the union government. At least six IAS officers of UP cadre and now in the rank of principal secretary have secured the requisite no-objection certificate (NOC) from the state government to shift to the union government on deputation, according to sources.

They are expected to join the union government after the election process is over in early March.

According to the sources, the list of these officers begins with the chief secretary himself – Anoop Mishra (1978 batch), who is eyeing the finance ministry for his next assignment. He served as joint secretary, banking, in the ministry before he joined the World Bank. There, he worked with Pulok Chatterjee, executive director of the bank, who has now returned as principal secretary in the prime minister’s office (PMO). Mishra is said to be on good terms with cabinet secretary AK Seth too since they are from the same cadre.

The list, the sources say, also includes Ravindra Singh (1979 batch), who is principal secretary to CM, Balvinder Kumar (1981 batch), principal secretary, commercial tax, and Vrinda Swaroop (1981 batch), principal secretary, finance.

Kunwar Fateh Bahadur Singh (1981), Navneet Sehgal (1988) and Anil Sant (1988) have also got the NOC from the state government to move to the union government, if sources are to be believed. Again, all three of them are considered to be closely associated with Mayawati.

They all will join a select club of UP cadre officer in key posts now: PK Mishra (secretary in the ministry of steel), GC Chaturvedi (secretary in the ministry of petroleum and natural gas), DK Mittal (secretary financial services in the ministry of finance), Naved Masood (secretary in the ministry of corporate affairs) and Loretta Mary Vas (secretary in the ministry of panchayati raj).

Moreover, Pankaj Agarwal (1978 batch), additional secretary, consumer affairs, is also looking forward to take charge as a secretary in the union government.

Of course, on top of the list are AK Seth and Pulok Chaterjee, both from the UP cadre.

As for the the Kerala cadre, it got a boost in recent years thanks to MK Narayanan, who was then national security adviser, KM Chandrashekhar, then cabinet secretary, Shivshanker Menon (then foreign secretary, now NSA), GK Pillai (then home secretary) and PJ Thomas (then telecome secretary and for a while chief vigilance commissioner till the curtains came down).