New Delhi, Aug. 7: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is unlikely to have a media adviser for a while.

As the incumbent, Sanjaya Baru, leaves office on Friday to take up an overseas assignment in academics, Singh’s media apparatus has been restructured.

R. Gopalakrishnan, a joint secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), will handle one aspect of Baru’s responsibilities — dealing with the media.

Baru will continue writing the Prime Minister’s major speeches. Others will be drafted by his understudy, Satya Narayan Sahu, a director in the PMO.

Sources close to Gopalakrishnan, a Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer, confirmed he would communicate with the media “on a day-to-day-basis”.

At present, he monitors social sector ministries and keeps a close eye on the government’s flagship schemes.

Gopalakrishnan was Congress leader Digvijay Singh’s information adviser when the latter was Madhya Pradesh chief minister. This stint may have been considered when he was chosen for the Prime Minister’s media job.

Sources close to the bureaucrat said this was an “internal arrangement” to ensure the information flow from the PMO wasn’t hampered after Baru left to join the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and the Institute of South Asian Studies in Singapore.

Other PMO sources insisted that the Prime Minister was looking for a full-fledged media adviser but would not say if he had a politico or a media professional in mind for the job.

“Things are at a critical juncture for the Prime Minister. The task is to see that his image as a leader of integrity and unimpeachable credentials withstands the Opposition’s, especially the BJP’s, onslaughts in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election. So, the role of a media adviser will be crucial,” an official source said.

Baru was more than a purveyor of information and a media facilitator. The nitty-gritty was left to his aide, K Muthukumar. As someone who knew Singh and his “mind” for several years, Baru was among the few who believed in the Prime Minister’s conviction that the nuclear deal was the best thing India could have got. The Congress was always iffy about Baru — because he made it clear that he was loyal only to the Prime Minister.

If Singh was saddened by Baru’s departure, the closest he came to displaying his feelings was at a farewell lunch he hosted for him at his house today.

The meeting ended with the two hugging each other, which said a lot about the otherwise impassive Prime Minister.