Former Top Cop To Contest Maharashtra Assembly Poll From Mumbai Seat

 Mumbai: Former Maharashtra director general of police Sanjay Pandey, who was also former Mumbai police commissioner, has decided to contest the upcoming state Assembly election. Pandey informed on Friday that he will contest from Mumbai’s Versova assembly seat.

“I have been wanting to join politics for some time now. But earlier I did not get the opportunity. Now I have decided to contest the state Assembly election and even finalised Versova assembly seat,” the former IPS officer said.

An IIT-Kanpur alumnus and 1986 batch IPS officer, Pandey retired from the police service in June 2022 and was arrested by the ED and CBI a month later in connection with NSE illegal phone tapping case.

In April 2021, the Maharashtra government led by then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray appointed Pandey as the DGP of Maharashtra. The appointment attracted a lot of controversy and anger among senior IPS officers as many alleged that Pandey was chosen over more deserving IPS officers. Later in February 2022, the Thackeay government also made Mumbai Police Commissioner by the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government. The BJP had alleged that the Thackeray government had appointed him as the Mumbai police commissioner on the condition that he will implicate Devendra Fadnavis in a false case and arrest him.

Pandey retired the same month Uddhav Thackeray stepped down from the chief minister’s post following Eknath Shinde’s rebellion.

Prior to the Lok Sabha election earlier this year, Pandey had expressed the desire to contest the election. However, he changed his decision after not receiving any positive response from any of the political parties he had approached. He had claimed that he had reached out to some political parties, including the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress, but he did not receive any response from them.

According to reports, Pandey will form his own party before the Assembly election. He claimed that he decided to enter politics after a lot of people urged him to do so.