Like Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Pillai too is known to be a hard taskmaster. Pillai was otherwise in the race for the top bureaucratic post of the country, as was his wife Sudha Pillai, also a 1972 batch Kerala cadre officer and presently Labour Secretary.
Outgoing home secretary Madhukar Gupta's name has been cleared for governorship of Tripura. He is to retire on June 30, completing his three-month extension as home secretary which he got due to the election process.
G.K. Pillai has done an earlier stint in the home ministry when he was handling the northeast division as joint secretary. Revenue secretary P.V. Bhide, a 1973 Andhra Pradesh cadre officer, was also considered for the post of home secretary. He too had done a stint in the home ministry earlier.