The Secretariat takes a look at how these former officers of the state fared at the battle of the hustings:

WINNERS:

Aparajita Sarangi, BJP

Aparajita Sarangi, the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate from Bhubneshwar in Odisha, secured 512, 519 votes, beating her nearest rival Manmath Routray of Biju Janata Dal by 35,152 votes. 

Already a Lok Sabha MP from Bhubaneswar, Odisha, Aparajita Sarangi was an IAS officer from the 1994 batch. She took voluntary retirement in 2018.

Last time, she had defeated former Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik of Biju Janata Dal. 

Arjun Ram Meghwal, BJP

A former bureaucrat,  Arjun Meghwal has won the Bikaner seat in Rajasthan by over 54,000 votes. 

Meghwal is considered to be one of Modi’s most trusted men. The three-term MP is contesting the election for the fourth time from Bikaner. 

Meghwal who was promoted to the IAS from the state civil service,  has been in active politics for almost more than 14 years. 

He entered politics after taking voluntary retirement when he was district magistrate in the Rajasthan government. Currently, he is the Law Minister in Modi’s cabinet. Meghwal is one of the prominent Dalit faces of the BJP. 

G Kumar Naik, Congress

A former IAS officer from the Karnataka cadre, G Kumar Naik the Congress candidate has won the Raichur Lok Sabha seat in the southern state of Karnataka by 80,000 votes. 

An engineer by profession, Naik joined the civil service in 1990. He was posted in several districts of Karnataka and is known to be an open-minded officer with innovative ideas.

He was contesting against the BJP's sitting MP Raja Amreshwara Naik.

Shashikant Senthil, Congress

An IAS officer from the Karnataka cadre, Shashikant Senthil won by a huge margin of 5.72 lakh from the reserved seat of Thiruvallur in Tamil Nadu.

Senthil had resigned from the civil services in 2019 and joined the Congress party a year later in November 2020.

He said after his resignation that he left the service because of disillusionment with the way the country was run because of certain steps that the central government took including implementing the CAA.

In Thiruvallur parliamentary constituency, his principal opponent was P V Balaganapathy of the BJP.

LOSERS:

Arup Patnaik, Biju Janata Dal

Arup Patnaik is a 1979 batch IPS officer who contested on a BJD ticket from Puri in Odisha. He lost to BJP's Sambit Patra by a margin of over 104,709 votes. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Patnaik had lost from Bhubaneswar to Aparajita Sarangi of the BJP. 

As the police commissioner of Mumbai, Patnaik was known for his ability to strictly maintain law and order. One of the common catchphrases he used while motivating the police force is believed to have been - “pehle action…baad me section (first act to bring order, then apply the law)”. His reputation in Mumbai didn’t seem to have worked in Odisha.

Debashish Dhar, BJP

Debashish Dhar, who joined the BJP recently and contested from Birbhum in West Bengal, lost by a margin of  about 2 lakh votes. An IPS officer of the 2010 batch from West Bengal, Dhar resigned from service in March to contest the polls.

A former CBI sleuth and superintendent of police in the sensitive border district of Coochbehar, Dhar was suspended after the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections. 

In West Bengal, Trinamool is leading in 31 out of 42 seats. 

K Annamalai, BJP

K Annamalai, the poster boy of BJP in Tamil Nadu contesting from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, lost to P Ganapathy Raj Kumar of DMK Candidate in Coimbatore. A 2011-batch IPS officer of the Karnataka cadre, Annamalai was Superintendent of Police in the Chikmagalur and Udupi districts be fore he resigned from the service in 2019 to join politics. 

An engineering graduate with an MBA from IIM Lucknow, he was projected as the face of the party in Tamil Nadu. Interestingly, this is not Annamalai's first election. He fought the Tamil Nadu assembly election in 2021 and lost to DMK's R Elango for the Aravakurichi seat. 

Parampal Kaur Sidhu, BJP 

Parampal Kaur Sidhu, who recently resinged from the service and joined the BJP to contest from Bhatinda Lok Sabha consituency in Punjab, lost to Harsimrat Kaur Badal of Shiromani Akali Dal by 50,000 votes. 

A 2011 batch IAS officer from the Punjab cadre, Sidhu is the daughter-in-law of Sikandar Singh Maluka, a senior leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The SAD was a part of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but parted ways during the state assembly polls in 2022.

Prasun Banarjee, Trinamool Congress

Prasun Banerjee, a former IPS officer contesting from Malda (North) Lok Sabha constituency on a ticket from Trinamool Congress, lost to sitting MP Khagen Murmu of the BJP by a margin of 77,708 votes.

A 2006 batch IPS officer of the West Bengal cadre, he resigned from the service earlier this year and joined the TMC. Banerjee had previously served as superintendent of police (SP) in South Dinajpur district and Malda. He served as deputy inspector general (DIG) of police in Balurghat and Malda, as also in the Crime Investigation Department (CID), the state investigative agency. He had six-and-a-half years of service left, when he took voluntary retirement. 

R K Singh, BJP

Two-time BJP MP and Minister of Power and Renewable Energy in the Modi government, R K Singh lost to Sudama Prasad of CPI(ML)-L in Bihar's Arrah constituency. The margin of loss was about 59,000 votes.He is trailing behind his nearest rival . R K Singh is a 1975 batch Bihar cadre IAS officer who had served as union home secretary. He won the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the same seat. 

As a DM in Samastipur, Bihar he gained a short-lived fame for having arrested senior BJP leader L K Advani during his Rath Yatra in October 1990. 

Saket Mishra, BJP

A former IPS officer and investment banker, Saket Mishra, contesting elections from the Lok Sabha constituency of Shravasti in eastern Uttar Pradesh, lost to Samajwadi Party candidate Ram Shiromani Verma by 76,673 votes.

After spending several years in police services, the 1994-batch officer quit the service to become a banker and settled overseas. He had studied at St Stephens College, Delhi, and IIM, Kolkata. He worked with several international banking companies including Deutsche Bank, Germany before joining politics a few years ago.

Currently, he is a nominated member of the UP legislative council. He is the son of Nripendra Mishra, former Principal Secretary to the PM.

Taranjit Singh Sandhu, BJP 

Taranjit Singh Sandhu, who contested from Amritsar on a BJP ticket, was defeated by Gurjeet Singh Aujla of the Congress Party by 40,000 votes. 

Till recently, Taranjit Singh Sandhu was the Ambassador of India to the US. An IFS officer from the 1988 batch, he is considered one of the most experienced diplomats in handling the super-power.

Sandhu was one of the senior officers who was instrumental in the evacuation of Indians from Ukraine when hostility broke out between the middle European nation and Russia. 

A Stephanian who holds a masters degree in international relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Sandhu has served in the Indian embassies of Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and Sri Lanka.

For More Election Related Stories see :

Lok Sabha Polls 2024: How India Voted Seat By Seat In A Blockbuster Election 

Lok Sabha Election 2024: The Big Winners And The Bigger Losers Of The Game Of Politics

Priorities For New Govt: Climate Change, Jobs Crisis, Food Inflation & Reviving Small Businesses

How Deeply Entrenched Will Deep Fakes Continue To Be In Indian Elections?