Lucknow: Seven ministers from Uttar Pradesh were sworn in at Rashtrapati Bhavan Wednesday, all picked with an eye on next year’s Assembly polls in the state.
Of the seven newly inducted ministers from UP, Anupriya Patel heads BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) and was a minister in the first Narendra Modi government. The rest are from the BJP.
Anupriya Patel, Pankaj Chaudhary and BL Verma are from the Other Backward Classes, which BJP leader in UP say make up 50 percent of voters in the state.
Three others, Kaushal Kishore, Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma and SP Singh Baghel, are from the Scheduled Castes category.
Ajay Kumar is the lone Brahmin in this batch of ministers from the state.
There was speculation earlier that Jitin Prasada, a Brahmin face of the Congress who recently joined the BJP, may be given a ministerial berth. But with Ajay Kumar, the state’s Terai region also gets representation.
Barring Rajya Sabha MP B L Verma, the new ministers are from the Lok Sabha.
A regional balance is maintained.
Anupriya Patel (Mirzapur) and Pankaj Chaudhary (Maharajganj) are from eastern Uttar Pradesh. From western UP, Baghel represents Agra and Rajya Sabha MP B L Verma hails from Budaun. Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, who represents Jalaun is from the Bundelkhand region.
Ajay Kumar represents Khiri parliamentary constituency in Terai and Kaushal Kishore is from Mohanlalganj, adjacent to capital Lucknow.
BJP leaders say that the OBCs constitute about 50 percent of the voters in the state and the Scheduled Castes make up 20 percent.
Anupriya Patel, a minister of state at the Centre from 2016 to 2019, has been jockeying for a separate ministry to solve problems faced by the OBCs.
Anupriya Patel
She is the president of the Apna Dal (Sonelal) party. Patel is one of the seven women who are expected to be joining the new cabinet. She is also a member of parliament from Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur city, where her party is in alliance with the BJP. Currently, she is serving her second term as a Lok Sabha member. Earlier, she had been the Union Minister of State for Health during the first term of the NDA government. Patel began her political career with Apna Dal, which was established in 1995 by her father, late Sonelal Patel in eastern UP and Bundelkhand.
Pankaj Chaudhary
A six-time Lok Sabha MP, Pankaj Choudhary brings with him a wealth of experience in the Union council of ministers. Sworn in on Wednesday as a Union minister, Choudhary (56) began his political career in 1989-91 as a member of the Gorakhpur Municipal Corporation, soon to become it's deputy mayor. He became a member of the BJP working committee in 1990. He was elected for the first time to the lower house of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj in 1991.
He was re-elected from the constituency in 1996 and 1998. Choudhary, however, lost to Akhilesh Singh of the Samajwadi Party in the 1999 General Election. He later won the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. In 2009, he lost to the Congress candidate from Maharajganj. In 2014, Choudhary won from the same constituency and again in 2019 to become a member of the Lok Sabha for the sixth time.
BL Verma
A member of the Rajya Sabha, 59-year-old B L Verma is an OBC leader who started off as an active party worker from Budaun in Uttar Pradesh. He became UP BJP vice-president in 2018 and as a member of the upper house of Parliament, he is in the Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes (OBCs). A first-time Union minister, Verma was earlier president of the Braj region unit of the saffron party. A prominent leader among the OBC communities, especially the Lodhi community in western UP, he is considered close to former chief minister Kalyan Singh. At present, Verma holds the post of the chairman of UP State Construction and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, enjoying the rank and status of a minister of state.
SP Singh Baghel
A five-time MP, Satya Pal Singh Baghel currently represents Agra in the Lok Sabha as a BJP MP. A party-hopper, 61-year-old Baghel was a member of the Lok Sabha in 1998, 1999 and 2004 as a Samajwadi Party MP, representing the Jalesar seat in Uttar Pradesh. After three terms as an MP, Baghel was suspended from the SP. He then unsuccessfully contested two Lok Sabha elections as a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate. In 2014, Baghel was elected to the Rajya Sabha as a BSP nominee. Baghel became president of the BJP OBC Morcha in 2015 and two years later he became a BJP MLA from Tundla before getting elected to the Lok Sabha again, this time on a BJP ticket from Agra. This is his first stint as a central minister.
Ajay Kumar
Sworn in as a Union minister on Wednesday, 60-year-old Ajay Kumar Mishra is a first-time BJP MP, representing Kheri Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh. He was elected as an MLA in 2012 from the Nighasan Assembly seat. Mishra started political career as the BJP''s district general secretary and rose gradually to become a Member of Parliament. Right from his youth, he was associated with activities such as education of the children from weaker sections and help them get medical facilities and employment.
Kaushal Kishore
Having spent over three decades in public life, Kaushal Kishore on Wednesday was sworn in as a Union minister in the Narendra Modi government. A two-time MP, Kishore (61) represents the Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Kishore, who belongs to the Schedule Castes (Pasi) community, is the national president of the Parakh Mahasangh and is the state chief of the BJP’s SC wing. He began his political career as an MLA from Malihabad in 2002. In 2002-03, he also rose to be a minister of state in the Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh government. An influential leader of the party, he is recognised for his activism related to issues of social justice.
Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma
Sworn in as a Union minister for the first time on Wednesday, five-time Lok Sabha MP Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma hails from a small place in Jalaun district of Uttar Pradesh. Yadav (63) had become an MLA in 1991. Chaudhary got elected to the Lok Sabha five times--in 1996, 1998, 2004, 2014 and 2019--from the Jalaun constituency. In 2001, he became vice-president of the UP BJP's SC Morcha and a decade later, he became its president. As an MP, he was a member of the Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
With inputs from PTI
July 07, 2021 at 09:29PM
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