Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Verma may be on the top of the list of those being considered as Central Bureau of Investigation chief, sources said after Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi and two others met on Monday evening.
Also read: CBI, RAW and IB to to get new chiefs soon
Verma reportedly got two out of three votes i.e. PM Modi and Chief Justice of India JS Khehar. Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge reportedly voted for someone else.
"Selection must be made according to law, merit and seniority," said Mallikarjun Kharge, member of CBI Director appointment committee.
The Congress supports RK Datta -- a former CBI officer. Datta and lawyer Prashant Bhushan reportedly filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the appointment of RK Asthana as acting chief of CBI in December.
Datta reportedly was the most qualified with the longest experience in anti-corruption units.
He was given a financial terrorism unit in the Home Ministry as he was too senior and deserved a special pay grade instead of CBI chief position.
Asthana lacks seniority as he is a 1984 batch officer and will only be eligible for the job in 2019.
The Congress' Lok Sabha leader Kharge also opposed the interim appointment, which the government said took place as the selection committee hadn't had the time to meet.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to hear the plea regarding the appointment of the CBI director on January 20.
The new CBI chief's tenure will be of two years and critics accused the government of letting Asthana fill the position until he was senior enough for it. He was handpicked by PM Modi to move to Delhi from Gujarat in 2014.
Verma, a 1979 batch IPS officer of the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre, served as the Director General of Tihar jail before replacing BS Bassi as the Delhi police chief in February 2016.
