The government has virtually cleared decks to name Pulok Chaterji, a loyalist of the Gandhi family, as cabinet secretary next year.

The union cabinet on Wednesday amended the service rules to give a second extension of one year to K M Chandrasekhar (62), a Kerala cadre IAS officer, in the post up to June 2011.

By the time Chandrasekhar, who has been holding the top post in the bureaucracy since June 2007, completes his extended term, all IAS officers of the 1972 and 1973 batches would have retired and this will facilitate elevation of Chatterjee, a 1974 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, to the post. He is presently an executive director in the World Bank, where his term ends in June 2011.

Th 59-year-old bureaucrat was earlier with the PMO serving Manmohan Singh during his entire first term. Before that he was secretary to Sonia Gandhi during her tenure as the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha. He came close to the Gandhi family while serving late Rajiv Gandhi and thus enjoys confidence of both Sonia Gandhi and her children for the past two decades.

Even while serving the PMO, he was holding the dual post as secretary in the National Advisory Council (NAC) that was headed by Sonia Gandhi until she quit to escape disqualification and got re-elected. Even after her exit, he continued in the NAC post besides serving the PMO for another two years before letting it die down. Sonia Gandhi was reappointed as the NAC chairperson last month, though the council has not yet started working for want of appointment of other members.