The suspense over the appointment of a new Chief Secretary and Director-General of Police will end shortly.

Even as Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami is keeping his cards close to his chest, a senior government official says the announcements on the two posts will be made in a day or two.

The need for finding replacements for the posts has arisen in the light of Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan retiring from service and DGP T.K. Rajendran completing his two-year term on Sunday. Files mentioning the names of their successors are expected to be forwarded to Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Thursday. As soon as the latter clears the files, the government will reveal the names, the official explains.

As for Ms. Vaidyanathan’s successor, the names of three senior IAS officers — R. Rajagopal, Additional Chief Secretary at Raj Bhavan; K. Shanmugam, ACS (Finance) and Rajeev Ranjan, Special Secretary, GST Council Secretariat, New Delhi — are doing the rounds.

If seniority were to be the only yardstick, Mr. Rajagopal will be the natural choice, as he belongs to the 1984 batch and the others, 1985.

Mr. Shanmugam, who has been handling the subject of Finance of the State government for the last nine years, has earned a reputation for being a smooth administrator. Before going on Central deputation in October last year, Mr. Ranjan headed the Highways department for over 5 years and worked under Mr. Palaniswami.

If Mr. Shanmugam gets the post, he will hold it for one year, as he will be retiring in July next year. In respect of Mr. Rajagopal, it will be two years as he will be attaining the age of superannuation in June 2021, and in Mr. Ranjan’s case, it will be a little longer — till September 2021.