It appears that a tug-of-war is on between Railway minister Lalu Prasad and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) over the appointment of Chairman of Railway Board (CRB).

The minister wanted RB’s Member (Staff) K C Jena to be made the CRB following the retirement on Tuesday of J P Batra. However, the PMO, according to official sources, refused to do so on the ground that Jena did not have a two-year term ahead of him which is now the norm for key posts.

However, on Wednesday, Member (Electrical) Ramesh Chandra was appointed CRB. The irony is that Chandra retires within a month — on August 31.

No one has been has been appointed as Member (Electrical) as Chandra has been told to continue to look that post too.

Amidst all these, Lalu, sources say, has been sulking as his demand to make Jena the new CRB has not happened.

However, the cold war has not ended and may resume towards the end of the month. Chandra, an officer of 1968 batch of the Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers, has been Member (Electrical) since May 2005. Prior to this, he worked as General Manager, Southern Railway.

During his 37-year long career, he served in various capacities including as Divisional Railway Manager, Mughalsarai, Chief Electrical Engineer, South Eastern Railway, Additional Gen Manager, Eastern Railway, Senior Deputy General Manager, South Central Railway and OSD, South East Central Railway.