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Caste, which has played a key role in most matters of governance in Uttar Pradesh, once again led to a last minute change in the choice of the new state police chief.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati handpicked a Brahmin IPS officer for the coveted position of Director General of Police instead of Atul Gupta, whose name was finalised on Tuesday.
In a late night move, the state government named R K Tiwari as the new incumbent for the position that falls vacant after the retirement of the present DGP Karamveer Singh.
Interestingly, Tiwari assumes charge of DGP in addition to his existing position of Director General of Provincial Armed Constabulary.
Both Tiwari and Atul Gupta belong to the 1976 batch of IPS, but the former's name was initially not considered for the top position because he is due to retire a month later on September 30. On the other hand, Atul Gupta has over two years of service remaining.
Highly placed sources claimed that the chief minister's advisors managed to impress upon her that Tiwari's appointment would go well with her much-hyped 'social engineering' (building a Dalit-Brahmin axis), which was believed to have forged the Dalit woman leader to power.
The move has not surprised those, who not very long ago witnessed how the chief minister had dealt with the issue of appointment of the chief secretary.
Desh Deepak Verma, a 1978 batch IAS officer, who was recalled from the Union government and formally named as the next chief secretary, was suddenly sidelined and replaced by his own batchmate Anoop Misra in the last minute.