Anupriya Singh Patel: The emerging champion of OBC causes

• Follow

The Narendra Modi-led NDA government has rewarded its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal), with the induction of its president Anupriya Singh Patel into the new Cabinet. She is a second-term Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur. She was elected in 2014 polls too. Patel, one of the youngest woman ministers, took oath as the Minister of State (MoS) on Wednesday and a few hours later she was allocated the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Political analysts say Patel’s (40) induction into the Cabinet for the second time serves three agendas of the Modi government: more representation of women, more young faces, and, of course, elections to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly next year.

Patel first became a member of the legislative assembly (MLA) from Rohaniya constituency in Varanasi after the 2012 UP elections. She then fought in alliance with the Peace Party of India and Bundelkhand Congress.

The caste factor

Patel, who had been jockeying for a separate ministry for other backward classes (OBC), is back in the Union Cabinet after two years. Earlier, she was the MoS in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare from 2016 to 2019 in the previous NDA government.

Her inclusion is also significant ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2024, apart from next year’s UP Assembly elections, as the OBCs have a sizeable number of voters in the key Purvanchal region.

Earlier this month, during a meeting of Apna Dal workers on the 72nd birth anniversary of the party founder, Sonelal Patel, she had openly voiced her demand for the formation of a separate ministry for OBCs on the lines of the minority affairs “to solve the problems of the backward classes”. She also demanded a national memorial for Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Delhi.

Besides, her party has also been raising its voice in Parliament over farmers’ protests and implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations for giving farmers a fair price for their produce.

After her recent meeting with the BJP brass in New Delhi for the first time since 2019, the buzz that she could be accommodated in the Union Cabinet grew louder. All speculation ended on Wednesday when she was sworn in as a minister.