Former Bengaluru police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao likely to join BJP, quitting AAP

Bengaluru: Former Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao, who is the Chairman of Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Manifesto Committee, is likely to join the BJP ahead of the Assembly polls in Karnataka, sources close to him and the party said on Tuesday.

The former IPS officer on February 28 met state’s Revenue Minister R Ashoka and held discussions.

He is also said to have met Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai, a former IPS officer and party’s co-in-charge for Karnataka polls, and Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, sources said, adding that he will be joining the party soon.

Rao, who resigned from the IPS, had joined AAP in April last year and was recently appointed as the party’s Manifesto Committee’s Chairman, and had emerged as one of the prominent faces of the party in the state.

Rao, who was even seen as AAP’s probable candidate from the Basavanagudi Assembly constituency, is said to have quit the party due to his reported not-so-good equations with certain leaders, especially in the state unit and its recent organisational changes, sources added.