Chandigarh, May 22 -- Himachal Pradesh chief secretary Sanjay Gupta, a 1988-batch IAS officer due to retire on May 31, is among several senior bureaucrats and engineers in the race for the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) chairman's post, which recently fell vacant.

Former Punjab bureaucrats A Venu Prasad, Anurag Aggarwal and special chief secretary Saravjit Singh are also among the contenders. PSERC member RS Saini, who has been holding additional charge after the retirement of chairman Vishawjit Khanna on April 22, is also in the fray, according to people familiar with the development.

PSERC is the statutory body regulating Punjab's power sector. It determines electricity tariffs, oversees power distribution and ...