Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has earned the wrath of a section of the state’s bureaucracy over the suspension of Indian Administrative Service officer Durga Shakti Nagpal. The perception is that unlike his predecessor, Mr Yadav is allowing politics to interfere with his government’s functioning. But few know that even as he has put up an abrasive front on Ms Nagpal’s suspension, he has also been quietly putting together a team of brilliant IAS officers who are working diligently, though under the media’s radar, to keep the state government ticking.

Among these dedicated IAS officers, sources say, are Surya Pratap Singh, a 1982 batch officer, who is principal secretary at the Uttar Pradesh infrastructure & industrial development (IDC) department, and Sanjay Agarwal, a 1984 batch officer, currently principal secretary in the UP Power Department and chairman of the UP Power Corporation. These babus are widely regarded within babu circles as “incorruptible” and seen as possessing virtues that bureaucracy should uphold. So Mr Yadav, in all probability, does realise that he really cannot do without IAS officers.

This post was originally published here.