A couple of decades ago, they faced Maoist bullets and landmines, moving through the hinterland of northern Telangana, convincing and sometimes coercing people to stay away from banned revolutionaries. Now, former Indian Police Service (IPS) officers R.S. Praveen Kumar and K.R. Nagaraju are campaigning in the Sirpur Kagaznagar and Wardhannapet constituencies, respectively, seeking the voters’ mandate to become MLAs. They are representing different political parties.
An IPS officer of the 1995 batch, Mr. Kumar was Assistant Superintendent of Police of Bellampally in undivided Adilabad district, under which the Sirpur Kagaznagar Assembly seat falls. When left wing extremism (LWE) was at its peak in Telangana, then a part of undivided Andhra Pradesh, it was difficult to mingle in public without gun-toting security personnel around him. As a young officer determined to crush the armed revolutionaries, who were mostly members of People’s War Group of Naxalites, Mr. Kumar extensively toured the constituency, albeit protected by several layers of security, to win over people and dissuade them from supporting Naxals by providing the latter food and shelter.
That interface of the yesteryears is bearing fruit for the police officer in his second innings. “In Dahegaon village of the constituency, many recalled how during my campaign as a police officer, I set them free after they were detained for allegedly providing food to Naxalites,” Mr. Kumar, who joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) after taking voluntary retirement in 2021, said. He became the BSP’s State president and is contesting as its nominee.
