BANGALORE: Hectic lobbying has begun for the post of Bangalore Police Commissioner though there are no indications of the incumbent Ajai Kumar Singh being shifted from the post immediately.

However, the transfer of the commissioners of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) and Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has given a new impetus to the lobbying. According to sources in the Secretariat and the police, prominent among those aspiring to be the Police Commissioner are Additional Directors-General of Police Jija Madhavan Harisingh, Subash Bharani, Shankar Mahadev Bidari and K.V. Ravindranath Tagore, who was promoted as ADGP only four days ago.

According to the sources, though Mr. Singh was "reluctant" to continue as commissioner after his promotion as Director-General of Police in February, the State Government asked him to carry on for a few more months and elevated the post to the rank of DGP. There are no indications of Mr. Singh being transferred immediately, the sources said.

Some ADGPs, who had earlier opposed the move to upgrade the commissioner's post to the rank of DGP, are now lobbying to succeed Mr. Singh.

There are 14 IPS officers of the ADGP rank in the State. If the Government goes by the seniority of the eligible officials, the city will get its first woman Police Commissioner as Ms. Jija Madhavan Harisingh, is the senior most ADGP. She is of the 1975 batch.

However, there is no binding on the Government that it should follow the seniority criterion in selecting the Police Commissioner.

There have been several instances wherein the seniority had been overlooked.

Apart from Ms. Jija Madhavan Harisingh, the other officers in the rank of ADGP (in order of seniority) are Mr. Subash Bharani, Sharath C. Saxena, D.V. Guruprasad, S.T. Ramesh, Neelam Achyut Rao, M.K. Srivatsava, A.R. Infant, L.R. Pachuau, Kuchanna Sreenivas, Mr. Bidari, Dharamapal Negi, Chandrashekara, and Mr. Tagore.

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