Calcutta: A signature feature of six years of Trinamul rule in Bengal has been chief minister Mamata Banerjee's administrative review meetings in the districts. Next week, unless there is a last-minute change, the review meetings in three districts will see a new face in the hot seat.

Chief secretary Malay De will conduct the meetings in West Burdwan, Purulia and Bankura instead of Mamata Banerjee who has till now helmed all the 159 administrative review meetings in the districts since May 2011.

Three meetings need not mean much but those reading the tea leaves feel the change signals three factors: the rise of De as the most powerful bureaucrat in the state since the days of B.R. Gupta from the Siddhartha Shankar Ray era, the chief minister's willingness to repose trust in efficient officers and a return by her to directly gauge the popular mood in the absence of erstwhile political aides like Mukul Roy.

"We have come to know that the chief minister has urged the top bureaucrat to conduct the meetings as she has to oversee the distribution of politically significant welfare measures," an official said.

"At the review meetings, the chief minister usually took on-the-spot decisions to remove bottlenecks. If the chief secretary is allowed to hold the meetings, it will mean he has the freedom to take decisions," the official added.

Both the Left and Trinamul governments were used to the political handling of administrative affairs.

The exception was the Ray government. "Between 1972 and 1977, Gupta was the chief secretary and he has always been regarded as the most powerful chief secretary in Bengal.... Malay seems to be inching closer to the status of Gupta Sir," said a retired bureaucrat.