BJP MP & Mumbai Ex-police commissioner Satya Pal Singh lists priorities for Baghpat constituency

Satya Pal Singh, who was Mumbai police commissioner till January, has emerged victorious from Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat parliamentary constituency on a BJP ticket, making him one of the two IPS officer-turned-MP in the 16th Lok Sabha, the other being Harish Chandra Meena, also from the BJP, who got elected from Dausa in Rajasthan.

“No development can take place without a good law and order situation. Being someone with a long career in the police service, I will contribute to police reforms in the country,” said Singh in an interview with ET Magazine after defeating Samajwadi Party’s Ghulam Mohammed, and pushing Union minister and RLD chief

Ajit Singh to third position in Baghpat, a family pocket borough once represented by Ajit Singh’s father and former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh. “Baghpat is a part of the National Capital Region of Delhi.

Yet, it’s grossly underdeveloped. I am surprised by the kind of goonda gardi [hooliganism] in the area. I will put a lot of energy in making Baghpat a safe place,” the newly elected MP added.

Singh’s immediate priorities also include ensuring speedy disbursal of payments to sugarcane farmers and creating more job opportunities for the youth belonging to his constituency.

As Mumbai police commissioner, Singh was a confidant of Maharashtra chief minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan, who had initially advised him not to join the BJP.

“As a police officer, I never failed to return a salute even to a peon. So, when I needed to say namaste to everyone (in the run-up to the campaign), I faced no ego problems,” Singh said in an earlier interview to ET Magazine after he had quit the police job one and half years ahead of his retirement to plunge into active politics.

Describing his party’s prime minister designate Narendra Modi as a “charismatic leader” and a “symbol of development” Singh said Modi must get the entire credit of the BJP’s unprecedented victory. Is Singh eying any ministerial berth? “No way. I don’t think, I will get any ministership,” says a candid Singh.