Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 30 (IANS): The race for the Kerala State Police Chief (SPC) ended when additional director general of Police Anil Kant was given the nod by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to take over as the new SPC, as incumbent Loknath Behera superannuates, on Wednesday.

Of late the norm for posting the SPC in states, is the state first sends a list of eligible candidates to the UPSC, which then screens the list based on norms and sends back three, and the government can post anyone from the list.

The Kerala government had first sent a list of 12 eligible candidates, which after the first screening by the UPSC, it was brought down to 9 and after further vetting, the UPSC returned the list of three which includes Sudheesh Kumar, the head of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, Sandhya - presently head of the Fire Force and Anil Kant - the Road Safety Commissioner.

Meanwhile, hopes were raised that Vijayan and the CPI-M which claim to give special status for women in all spheres would give the nod to Sandhya and thereby take the credit for naming the first female SPC in the state.

Though Kant has eight more months to superannuation, the rules are the service can be extended for two years.

Hailing from Delhi, the 1988 batch, Kant will write himself into record books by becoming the first from the Dalit community to become the top police officer in Kerala.

Expressing happiness, Kant said women security would be his top priority, as always has been the case.

"Women and children's safety will be our prime concern and all the programmes of my predecessor will be taken forward. I am happy and thankful to the chief minister and the department to have given me this post," said Kant, hearing about the new posting.

Kant will get the rank of the director general of police only at the end of next month when DGP Rishiraj Singh retires.