Ranchi, March 24 (IANS): Five former Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, including a sitting Lok Sabha MP, are in the poll fray in Jharkhand.

They are sitting Jamshedpur MP Ajay Kumar, Amitabh Chaudhary, B.D. Ram, Subodh Prasad and Rameshwar Oraon.

Ajay Kumar was elected in a 2011 by-poll. He quit the IPS and later joined the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) floated by Jharkhand's first chief minister Babulal Marandi.

Rameshwar Oraon too quit the elite police service and joined the Congress in 2004. He fought on a Congress ticket from Lohardagga and won. He was also a minister in the union government. He lost in 2009 and is now the Congress candidate from Lohardagga.

Former director general of police B.D. Ram, after superannuation, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and is the candidate from Palamau.

Amitabh Chaudhary, who opted voluntary retirement from the IPS last year is contesting from Ranchi on a JVM-P ticket. Chaudhary, the president of the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA), is pitted against incumbent MP and former central minister Subodh Kant Sahay.

Subodh Prasad, who retired as a deputy inspector general of police, has been fielded by the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) from Godda.

All of them say that joined politics to serve the people and develop their respective Lok Sabha constituencies.