Next please

After many false starts, it’s come down to the wire now. While Mumbai Police Commissioner     Dr Satyapal Singh became eligible for a promotion over eight months ago, the tug of war between the Congress and the NCP over the choice of his successor has resulted in a bizarre situation where he’s neither being promoted nor transferred. With the model code of conduct likely to come into play next month putting a freeze on transfers, the suspended animation clearly cannot continue much longer. According to highly placed sources, Rakesh Maria was so far being seen as the front-runner to succeed Singh but the sudden twist in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case has queered the pitch for him.

Though there’s a slew of theories doing the rounds after two suspects in the case claimed the ATS chief had offered them Rs 25 lakh to own up the crime, for now it has definitely opened up the race. From what we hear, there was a possibility that Singh would be asked to continue till the elections, but highly placed sources tell us that he isn’t keen to linger and has politely conveyed that to Mantralaya. So while Vijay Kamble could well pip Maria to the post, even Ahmed Javed is being seen as a dark horse. A photo finish ahead.