Ajay Kumar (politician)

Ajay Kumar, a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, was elected as the MP (Member of Parliament) in the 15th Lok Sabha, from the Jamshedpur Lok Sabha constituency.

He was elected as the member of 15th Lok Sabha, from the Jamshedpur Lok Sabha constituency in a mid-term election. He belongs to Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) (JVM) party, during the 2011 Jamshedpur by-elections held on 1 July 2011, the result for the same was announced on 4 July. He defeated his nearest rival, Dineshanand Goswami of BJP, by a margin of over 1.55 lakh votes. JVM is led by the former chief minister of Jharkhand, Babulal Marandi. A former IPS officer of 1986 batch, Kumar served as the superintendent of Police in Jamshedpur (1994–96), after which he left the police service and joined Tata Motors as a senior executive.

In 2014, He lost the election for the 16th Lok Sabha from Jamshedpur by a margin of almost 100,000 votes to BJP candidate, Bidyut Baran Mahato.

He joined Indian National Congress on August 23, 2014. After lots of speculation on nomination for Member of Parliament (MP) of Rajyasabha(Upper House) from his native state Karnataka he has appointed as Spokesperson for the Congress party on September 26, 2014.

Ajay Kumar was born as Ajay Kumar Bhandary in Mangalore to Vathsala and K.S. Bhandary.

He did his schooling from Hyderabad Public School. Kumar has also served Jamshedpur as an IPS officer (1986–1996). He was the city SP from the year 1994 to 1996, during which he was termed by the media as an encounter specialist. Before this Kumar was assigned as the SP of Jamshedpur, he was serving as the city SP of Patna. During the 1990s Jamshedpur was ruled by local "Goons", and crime was at a peak in the city, when the chief minister of Bihar Lalu Prasad Yadav, on request of the Tata Steel MD J. J. Irani, sent Kumar, as the City SP in 1994. In a short time the SP was successful in controlling and decreasing the crime rate in Jamshedpur.

Kumar obtained his MBBS in 1985, from Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research in Puducherry. After joining as an IPS in 1986, he was awarded with the "Rastrapati Puraskar" in 1986.