Former DGP R Sreelekha makes debut in Kerala as BJP Candidate: 5 points on Vattiyoorkavu candidate

R. Sreelekha, Kerala's first woman IPS officer and former DGP, is contesting the 2026 Assembly elections from Vattiyoorkavu as a BJP candidate.

R Sreelekha, a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer with over three decades of service from 1987 to 2020, was also Kerala’s first woman IPS officer and later its first woman Director General of Police (DGP). She is now contesting from the Vattiyoorkavu constituency in Thiruvananthapuram as a BJP candidate in the 2026 Kerala Assembly elections.

NDA candidate from Vattiyoorkavu constituency, R. Sreelekha shows her ink-marked finger after casting her vote for the Kerala assembly elections, at booth number 104 of Cotton Hill School, in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday. (@BJP4Keralam X)

Sreelekha stepped into politics after joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2024, and in 2025, she was elected as a councillor from Ward No. 41, Sasthamangalam, in Thiruvananthapuram.

5 Key Facts about R. Sreelekha

• R. Sreelekha was born on 25 December 1960 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, to Professor N. Velayudhan Nair and B. Radhamma. She grew up in an academically inclined family and pursued her higher education in Kerala, later qualifying for the Indian Police Service.
• In the final phase of her police career, R. Sreelekha took charge as Director General of Kerala Fire and Rescue Services on 1 June 2020, becoming the first woman DGP to hold independent charge in the state. She retired from this post on 31 December 2020 after completing over 33 years of service in the Indian Police Service.
• Sreelekha has received several recognitions for her service in the police force. She was awarded the President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2004 for her work in the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, and later the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2013. In addition, she received the Kerala Government’s Meritorious Service Award in 2007 for her role in solving a high-profile murder case.
• After retiring from service, R. Sreelekha joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was elected as a councillor from Ward No. 41, Sasthamangalam, in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation in 2025.
• Sreelekha is now contesting from the Vattiyoorkavu constituency in the 2026 Kerala Assembly elections on a BJP ticket, where she faces CPI(M)’s V. K. Prasanth and Congress leader K. Muraleedharan in a closely watched three-way contest.