Raghuram Rajan' term ends in September this year. Rajan, on Saturday declared in a letter, he doesn't wish to take up a second term as RBI Governor.

There are seven candidates on a long list to replace Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, a senior government official told Reuters on Saturday.

The candidates are Vijay Kelkar, Rakesh Mohan, Ashok Lahiri, Urjit Patel, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Subir Gokarn and Ashok Chawla, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Of the field, the two best known are Patel, now a deputy governor of the RBI, and Bhattacharya, who is chair of State Bank of India (SBI.NS), the country's largest bank.

The others are veterans of the RBI, the Indian civil service or the two major global financial bodies, the International Monetary Fund or World Bank.

Two finance ministry officials, Shaktikanta Das and Arvind Subramanian, who market participants had previously speculated might-be candidates are not on the long list, the official said.