Former director-general of police (DGP) Prakash Mishra has been appointed as adviser to Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi.

Mishra will enjoy the status of a cabinet minister.

Mishra, after his retirement, joined the BJP and was also the party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Cuttack in 2019 but lost to the then BJD candidate Bhartruhari Mahtab. Later in the 2024 elections, he declined to contest after Mahtab joined the BJP and was fielded as the party candidate from the Cuttack Lok Sabha seat.

Mishra is in the news for his book, Comedy in Khaki: The Humorous Memories of a Policeman, which was released on January 6 in New Delhi. In his book, Mishra has been critical of former chief minister Naveen Patnaik and his administration. The book, of course, does not name anyone.

Mishra, a 1977-batch IPS officer, was at loggerheads with the Naveen Patnaik government after it tried to falsely implicate him in a corruption case. He had served the state as DGP from 2012 to 2014. But he challenged the government in the court and won the case, putting the Naveen administration in an embarrassing situation.

However, for this reason only, he could not be posted as the CBI director though his name was doing the rounds at that time. Later the Centre appointed him as director-general of the CRPF.

He retired in 2016. During his career, he also served as the head of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and had a stint at the National Investigation Agency and Union home ministry.

The state government also appointed former IAS Officer Madhu Sudan Padhi (1991 batch) as the state election commissioner. Padhi was also critical of Naveen’s administration and did not enjoy the goodwill of Patnaik. He served the state in different capacities including serving as the principal secretary to the governor and retired in October 2022.