Cops And Babus Who Wanted To Police Politicians
Bengaluru: Bureaucrats taking a plunge into active politics is not new in Karnataka body polity. Several IAS and IPS officers tried their luck in politics in the past too.
Former Bengaluru Police Commissioners P Kodandaramaiah, L Revennasiddaiah, H T Sangliyana and Shankar Bidari were one of the early birds to who flew into political landscape of Karnataka, although not all of them were successful.
While Kodandaramaiah won the Lok Sabha polls in 1996 from Chitradurga Lok Sabha Constituency on the JD(S) ticket, former Bengaluru police commissioner H T Sangliyana was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2004 from the Bengaluru North Lok Sabha constituency on BJP ticket. L Revannasiddaiah contested against former chief minister Siddaramaiah in Varuna Constituency in 2008, but had lost the elections. In 2013, he joined the Congress and was known to be instrumental in leading Siddaramaiah to victory. In 2018, he returned to the BJP fold. He had sought BJP ticket from the Varuna Constituency, but was denied the ticket.
Shankar Bidari, former DGP and dynamic police officer of his times, had sailed with both the Congress and the BJP but never contested in elections.
Anupama Shenoy, a 2010 batch officer of the Karnataka State Police Cadre, resigned as Kudligi Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) in Ballari district following a showdown with the then labour minister Parameshwar Naik, a trusted lieutant of former CM Siddiramaiah. After quitting the police service, she had floated Bharatiya Janashakti Congress (BJC) and contested in 2018 Assembly elections, but was not successful. P Rajive, Kuduchi MLA of Congress, before he joined active politics worked as Police Inspector in Kuduchi police station. Former IAS officers, P. Ravindara, Siddaiah, Subramanaiah, Somashekar and others joined politics after retirement.