In the second term of the Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh, 52 ministers were sworn in on Friday, one of which is Union Minister Anupriya Patel’s husband Ashish. 42-year-old Ashish has also been an engineer in Jal Nigam. Apna Dal (S) had fielded candidates in the UP elections in alliance with the BJP and won 12 seats.
Sources told the Indian Express that the BJP had long put on hold the Apna Dal(S)’s demand to include Ashish in the cabinet, including two expansions by the previous Adityanath government. At present, Anupriya Patel is a minister in the central government. In this way both the wife and the husband are ministers in the BJP government.
According to the Sunday Express, Ashish says that he sees this as another opportunity to work for the society. He said, “I entered politics to ensure that all sections of the society get their rights. I will continue to work in that direction.” A graduate in civil engineering from a government college in Jhansi, Ashish started serving as a job engineer in UP Jal Nigam.
Anupriya Patel was married to Ashish Patel on 27 September 2009. In the same year, Anupriya was made the general secretary of Apna Dal after the death of her father and Kurmi leader Sonelal Patel. The party was founded by Sonelal Patel in 1995. Anupriya Patel’s mother Krishna Patel became the president of the party.
In 2012, Anupriya won her first election and became an MLA. Considering the OBC vote, especially around the Varanasi region from where Narendra Modi was contesting his first Lok Sabha election, the BJP decided to forge an alliance with the Apna Dal in 2014. Two years later, Anupriya Patel was given the responsibility of Minister of State at the Centre.
In 2017, Ashish Patel took voluntary retirement from Jal Nigam job, deciding to enter active politics. He was soon elected to the UP Legislative Council with the support of the BJP. Since then the Apna Dal had started pressurizing Ashish to be included in the cabinet. Apna Dal now had two MPs and nine MLAs. At that time Ashish did not find a place in the cabinet but as MLC, he was allotted a luxurious bungalow in the VVIP zone of Mall Avenue, which was once owned by former CM ND Tiwari.
A party leader said that whenever Ashish assigns a task to a person, his status is updated on the WhatsApp group. If the concerned government official delays the work, then its information is also given in the group and then Ashish himself talks to that officer.