Tourism Secretary main attraction

If spouses of politicos happen to be bureaucrats, they risk being unwittingly game for political football. Tourism Secretary Shailaja Ramaiyer, known to be an upright officer who has taken political targeting in her stride, is once again in the limelight following the regime change. For newbies, Shailaja is the wife of D Sridhar Babu, presently Minister in the Congress government. Until Revanth Reddy was handpicked as the Chief Minister by AICC, there was buzz in the corridors of power referring to her as “potential CM’s wife”, since Sridhar Babu too was in the race for CM position. Now Sridhar Babu has been given the portfolio of Industries and IT, previously handled by KT Rama Rao, under whom Shailaja worked initially as Textiles Commissioner and then as Handlooms and Textiles Secretary. After that, she was kept waiting for posting for almost 10 months before being made Tourism Secretary. All eyes are now on which post she would be handed.