Lok Sabha Elections: Days After Resigning as IPS Officer, Debashis Dhar Announced as BJP’s Birbhum Candidate

IPS officer Debashis Dhar who recently resigned from service figures in the BJP’s latest list of candidates for Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal. Dhar, who resigned on March 20, citing “personal reason” and “socials goals” will be contesting from the Birbhum constituency, which votes in the fourth phase on May 13.

Speaking to News18, Dhar said he has entered poltics to “clear the system”.

“I wanted to do something for the people that’s why I became an IPS officer. After 2021, I could not work and was humiliated. My house also was raided by West Bengal Police. My mother, who has never seen such things, told me not to see her. I have not talked to my daughter for so long. I wanted to do something so that this system gets cleared.”

Dhar, the former superintendent of police of Coochbehar, was suspended after the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections during which four people were killed in Sitalkuchi in the district in alleged firing by central forces. The BJP, however, says Dhar’s suspension was political vendetta by the TMC as he presented the “actual report” of the firing incident.

He was also raided by the West Bengal CID in September 2022 in connection with a disproportionate assets case. Five properties, including the residence of Dhar and businessman Sudipto Roychowdhury, in Salt Lake, Metropolitan Society and Jodhpur Park were raided back then. Sources in the CID told News18 that Dhar’s possessions increased at an “exorbitant rate” from 2015 to 2018.

Dhar had claimed that he has never made any financial transaction with Roychowdhury and had said he would fully cooperate with the investigation.

Dhar, who also worked with the CBI between 2011 and 2013, will face off in Birbhum against TMC strongman Anubrata Mondal. While BJP insiders are confident they picked a winning candidate, TMC sources told News18 they were anticipating that Dhar would join the saffron party.

Riding on issues of worsening law and order, corruption, atrocities on women and CAA, the BJP is sniffing a chance of not only repeating its 2019 performance of winning 18 seats but also raising its tally before it takes on TMC in the Assembly polls in 2026.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the TMC won 22 seats, the Congress won two seats whereas the BJP won 18 out of the 42 seats in the state. Elections will be held in the state in seven phases between April 19 and June 1. The counting of votes will be held on June 4.