Lightning Ascent

There are fast moves in babudom bureaucracy, and then there is the Sujit Kumar story, which has impressed many in service circles.

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There are fast moves in babudom bureaucracy, and then there is the Sujit Kumar story, which has impressed many in service circles.

In just 51 days, Kumar went from Principal Commissioner in Delhi to BJP MLA from Gaura Bauram in Darbhanga, Bihar. Normally, such transitions take months of paperwork, clearances, and political negotiation. In this case, the timeline has raised more than a few eyebrows.

The sequence speaks for itself. On September 13, CBDT issued a promotion list that unusually included 20 IRS-IT officers of the 2001 batch at a level many of their IAS counterparts are still waiting to reach. Kumar was among them. Ten days later, he and others were given postings at their upgraded grade. On September 25, he applied for voluntary retirement. Instead of the standard three-month wait, Rashtrapati Bhavan cleared it in just 15 days. He joined the BJP on October 13, was named a candidate within 24 hours, filed his nomination the next day, went to the polls on November 6, and won on November 14.

What makes the speed more striking is the contrast with others who entered politics the hard way. Former IAS officer RK Singh, once a Union minister, was recently dismissed from the BJP for speaking out of turn. No such turbulence for Sujit Kumar, hopefully. His trajectory suggests not just careful planning, but powerful patrons ensuring the gears turned smoothly.

None of this means Kumar lacks merit. He is regarded as bright, ambitious, and politically aware. But few believe this chain of empanelment, VRS clearance, ticket allocation and electoral victory would have aligned without strong backing from Delhi.

Hints of a bigger reshuffle