Bengaluru: With State Chief Secretary  (CS) Subha Chandra Khuntia set to retire by the end of this month, speculation on his successor is already in the air in the corridors of power in the State. Senior IAS officers in the rank of Additional Chief Secretary K. Ratna Prabha and T.M. Vijaya Bhaskar, who is serving as the Development Commissioner, have emerged as the front runners to head the State’s bureaucracy.

Ratna Prabha, a 1981 batch Dalit officer, who had missed the importunity on the previous occasion as Chief Minister Siddharamaiah had preferred Khuntia, is almost certain to make it this time.

With the Assembly elections fast approaching, Siddharamaiah who prides himself as a champion of Dalits and Backward Classes, would not commit the mistake of denying the Dalit Woman IAS officer the chance to be the Chief Secretary, according to sources.

If appointed, Ratna Prabha will be the third woman Chief Secretary of the State after Teresa Bhattacharya (2000) and  Malathi Das (2006) and will head the State Administrative machinery till March 2018.

Vijay Bhaskar, a 1983 batch IAS office, is junior to Ratna Prabha and the chances of Siddharamaiah promoting him over with elections round the corner are very slim, the sources added.