Anupriya, an educationist tastes political waters for 2nd term as Union minister

New Delhi:Ms Anupriya Patel, Apna Dal (Sonelal) founder, was made the union minister for the second time in the Narendra Modi government.

Taking forward her father, late Sonelal Patel's backward politics legacy, Ms Patel, second time MP from backward Mirzapur Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh, is an active politician of Kurmi community, which has a powerful say in the state politics.Sonelal Patel was a prominent Kurmi leader of UP and he died in a freak accident in October, 2009 in Kanpur.

Well read Ms Patel, 40, was educated at Lady Shri Ram College for Women and Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University, Kanpur, she has a master's degrees in Psychology and also Masters in Business Administration (MBA), and has even taught at Amity campus in Noida.

Her husband Ashish Singh Patel is also in politics helping his wife and is presently MLC of the party in UP legislative council.

But Ms Patel had a bitter political dispute with her mother Krishna Patel and younger sister Pallavi, who had also floated a separate Apna Dal group aligning with opposition parties.

However, a few days back, Anupriya was reported to have tried to mend her dispute with her mother and have even suggested the Yogi Adityanath government to recommend Krishna Patel to the upper house of the state.

Ms Patel has been president of Apna Dal since the death of her father in October 2009. In 2012, she was elected as the member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, for the Rohaniya assembly segment in Varanasi, which is the part of Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, represented by Prime minister Narendra Modi.

She was made the union minister first time in 2016 in the first Modi government but was dropped in the second regime in 2019. She was minister of state for health, then.But now fortunes have turned again in favour of Ms Patel.(UNI)