Four senior officials of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) are in the race for the post of whole time member (WTM), which is just a rank below the chairman . The officials include Nagendraa Parakh, S Ravindran, Anand Baiwar and Amarjeet Singh, sources told Business Line . All of them are currently working as executive directors.

The term of four WTMs in the SEBI- SK Mohanty, Ananta Barua, G Mahalingam and Madhabi Puri Buch- is coming to an end this year and all of them are eligible for reappointment. Parakh is the senior most among all the current executive directors. In fact, when they were working with the erstwhile commodity market regulator, Forwards Market Commission (FMC), Parakh was a WTM there and Mohanty was his junior. In SEBI, Mohanty first became the WTM after both of them crossed over from FMC in 2015. Mohanty's term ends in June and SEBI has called for applications for his post. For most of his term, Mohanty handled commodity derivatives but his portfolio was changed recently.

Extension likely for Mohanty

Sources said that Mohanty was the favourite to win another extension and the EDs in the race may have to wait till the other WTMs retire this year. Aanta Barua is another SEBI WTM whose term ends in August. Mahalingam and Madhabi Puri Buch’s terms end later this year. Mahalingam was appointed as WTM for a period of five years while Buch came in 2017 for three years and got a year's extension in 2020.

Apart from internal candidates, few commissioner level officials from the income tax department and IAS officials are in the race for WTM SEBI post, sources said.

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