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The minister’s accusation came a few days after Pallavi Patel, his sister-in-law and an MLA from Sirathu, alleged the bypassing of service rules in departmental promotions.
Ashish Patel belongs to the Apna Dal (Sonelal), a crucial ally of the BJP, and is husband of Anupriya Patel, who heads the party in UP and is a Union Minister of State. (Image: PTI File)
UP Cabinet Minister Ashish Patel has accused the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (UP STF) of hatching conspiracy against him? He has also alleged threat to life from the agency.
Patel belongs to the Apna Dal (Sonelal), a crucial ally of the BJP, and is husband of Anupriya Patel, who heads the party in UP and is a Union Minister of State. News18 spoke to Ashish Patel, the Minister of Technical Education of Uttar Pradesh, on the entire controversy which has taken UP’s political circle by storm. The minister said UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath may order a CBI probe into all the decisions taken by him during his tenure.
The minister’s accusation came a few days after Pallavi Patel, his sister-in-law and an MLA from Sirathu representing the Samajwadi Party as well as a leader of the Apna Dal (Kameravadi), alleged the bypassing of service rules in departmental promotions. Pallavi had accused the Technical Education Department of irregularities and corruption in the promotion of 250 posts for Heads of Department across the state.
Ready for CBI enquiry
Patel, who heads the Ministry of Technical Education, Consumer Protection, and Weights & Measures, dismissed the allegations as baseless. Speaking to News18, he said, “I have already stated that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath may order a CBI probe into all the decisions taken by me. I fear no one and am prepared to face any consequences. However, I am under threat from the STF.”
The minister’s accusations, however, became all the more evident after his recent post on the ‘X’ went viral. “I have said earlier also that Ashish Patel, a descendant of Iron Man Sardar Patel, is not one of those who get scared but one of those who fight. A special thing for my well-wishers is that if any kind of conspiracy/accident happens to me in this fight for social justice, then the entire responsibility for it will be of the Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh Police,” the minister’s recent post on ‘X’ read.
‘An attempt to suppress voice of social justice’
The minister claimed that the allegations were part of a “conspiracy” to “suppress the voice of social justice”. “Behind the scenes, the game of crushing the voice of social justice continues. The reason for some people feeling hurt in this matter of promotion is that those OBCs and deprived classes are getting benefits, whose rights were being usurped for years. If you see the category-wise list of promotions attached with the post, you will get an idea of this,” the minister claimed in a post on X.
The controversy
The controversy surfaced in December 2024 during winter session of UP assembly when Pallavi Patel, the leader of Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) and Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) accused the technical education department, headed by Ashish Patel, of corruption in promotions. She alleged that ineligible candidates were promoted to the position of HoD in government and aided polytechnics, violating new guidelines.
However, when speaker Satish Mahana denied her permission to discuss the issue, citing procedural rules, and asked her to sit or leave the House, an adamant Patel walked out and staged a dharna near Chaudhary Charan Singh’s statue outside Vidhan Bhavan, announcing that her protest would continue until the government addressed the alleged scam. However, the protest, which was quite a rare sight, ended after nine long hours when Suresh Khanna, cabinet minister, also the Finance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister in UP, pacified the angry MLA and assured her that she will be allowed to speak.
Who is Pallavi Patel?
Dr Pallavi Patel is an Indian politician and the leader of Apna Dal (Kamerawadi), a political party founded by her father, the late Dr Sone Lal Patel. She is currently a Member of the UP Assembly, representing the Sirathu constituency as a candidate of the Samajwadi Party (SP). Pallavi gained national attention in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections when she defeated Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya by a margin of 7,337 votes. Pallavi Patel is the sister of Anupriya Patel, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry and president of the Apna Dal (Soneylal) party. The political rivalry between the two sisters is widely known.
On the controversy, the minister, Ashish Patel, further questioned the motives behind what he termed a political conspiracy. He said that if there was no wrongdoing in the promotion process, fabricating baseless allegations served no purpose. Even if such claims were considered, he questioned why the focus was solely on the minister while other officials, such as the Principal Secretary and the entire system, were exempt from scrutiny. Patel said that the selective targeting of individuals, particularly the minister, raised questions about the intent behind these accusations.
