New Delhi: Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik will try his luck for the second time in the Lok Sabha election from Puri in Odisha on a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) ticket. Patnaik has been pitted against Sambit Patra of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
A retired IPS officer of the 1979 batch, the BJD candidate had contested the last Lok Sabha election from Bhubaneshwar in which he lost to BJP’s Aparajita Sarangi, a former IAS officer, by a margin of about 21,000 votes.
Patnaik, who was instrumental in actor Sanjay Dutt’s arrest in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, is one of the several IPS officers to make the leap from “khaki to khadi”, and try their hand in politics.
“This is my destiny. I was born in Puri district…In a sense, it is like coming back. Most of my life was spent outside Odisha; it is a matter of satisfaction that at this ripe age, I have been called back by Lord Jagannath to do something. I am also grateful to the Chief Minister for having elected me for this Lok Sabha election,” he told news agency ANI after being fielded by the BJD.
#WATCH | Lok Sabha elections 2024 | Odisha: On being fielded by the BJD from Puri seat, Arup Patnaik says, "This is my destiny. I was born in Puri district…In a sense, it is like coming back…Most of life was spent outside Odisha and it is a matter of satisfaction that at this… pic.twitter.com/EhejYHI1e1
— ANI (@ANI) March 27, 2024
When it comes to police commissioners, however, he is one of the few to have taken this plunge. ThePrint looks at the police commissioners who tried their luck in politics in recent years.
Satya Pal Singh: Like Patnaik, Satya Pal Singh, a 1980 batch Maharashtra cadre IPS officer, is a former Mumbai Police Commissioner, and a sitting Member of Parliament from Baghpat in western Uttar Pradesh since 2014. As Mumbai Police Commissioner, he was credited with reportedly dismantling Mumbai’s organised crime syndicates in the 1990s.
Under the Modi government’s first term, he was made Minister of State in the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and the Ministry of Human Resource Development. In 2016, Singh alleged that the UPA government had asked him to frame Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.
Singh has been left high and dry now, as the BJP has allotted Baghpat to Jayant Chaudhury’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).
Nikhil Kumar: An officer of the 1963 batch of the AGMUT cadre, and a former Delhi Police Commissioner, Kumar is a rare IPS officer-turned MP-turned governor. After he retired from service in 2001, he was appointed as a member of the National Security Advisory Board. In 2004, he fought and won the Lok Sabha election from Aurangabad in Bihar on a Congress ticket
In 2009 and 2013, he was appointed as the governor of Nagaland and Kerala, respectively. He was said to be keen on contesting the election from Aurangabad this time but the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a Congress ally, has fielded a candidate in this seat, leaving him miffed.
Bhaskar Rao: A 1990-batch officer from the Karnataka cadre, Rao served as the commissioner of police for Bengaluru between August 2019 and 2020. In 2021, he opted for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), and after reportedly being courted by both the Congress and the BJP, he joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which he claimed had the least baggage.
By 2023, he switched to the BJP, and unsuccessfully contested the Karnataka election from Chamarajpet. While he was hopeful for a ticket from the Mysuru Lok Sabha constituency this time, Rao has not been picked by the party as a candidate. In 2023, Rao had said that the BJP should be more inclusive towards Muslims, as they have the same DNA as Hindus.
Humayun Kabir: Months after he made headlines in 2021 for arresting BJP workers who allegedly raised the slogan of ‘goli maaro’ (shoot them) at Suvendu Adhikari’s rally, Kabir was rewarded by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) with a ticket from Debra assembly constituency in West Bengal. Kabir was serving as the police commissioner of Chandnnagar before he took VRS to join the TMC.
At Debra, he was pitted against another former IPS counterpart, Bharati Ghosh, who was close to Mamata Banerjee until 2019, when she had a fall out with the Bengal CM, and joined the BJP. Kabir won the election.
In 2023, Kabir expressed unhappiness over the political violence during the panchayat polls, an act that led to a show-cause notice from the party.
Asim Arun: A 1994-batch IPS officer, Arun took voluntary retirement from service in 2022 while serving as the police commissioner of Kanpur. Fielded by the BJP from Kannauj in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh election, Arun went on to win from the Samajwadi Party stronghold. Subsequently, he was included in the Yogi government’s Council of Ministers.
K.R. Nagaraju: An IPS officer from Andhra Pradesh/Telangana cadre, Nagaraju served as the commissioner of Nizamabad in Telangana. During most of his tenure as an officer, he worked in Warangal district, a Naxal hotbed.
He had joined the police force as a sub-inspector in 1989, and was elevated to the position of an IPS officer due to the promotions he got due to his work in Naxal-hit areas. Last year, he contested the Telangana election on a Congress ticket from Wardhannapet, and won with a margin of 17,000-plus votes.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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