UP minister Ashish Patel claims some officials 'conspiring' to harm his political career

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Technical Education Minister Ashish Patel on Sunday accused his rivals of orchestrating a conspiracy against him and his party Apna Dal (S), and claimed some officials were trying to harm his and his wife Union minister Anupriya Patel's political career.

Ashish Patel's sister-in-law Pallavi Patel, who was elected to the assembly on a Samajwadi Party ticket, has alleged corruption in the appointments of department heads in the Technical Education Department.

She has accused officials of bypassing current service rules to manipulate appointments. Pallavi Patel had staged a protest in the Assembly over the issue.

In a long post on X on Sunday, Ashish Patel said slowly the "conspiracy" against him is getting exposed. He also alleged that some senior government officials including one in the Information Department were involved in spreading false news about him.

On the allegations against him, Ashish Patel said promotion-related Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) was constituted under the leadership of M Devraj, an officer he described as the "most honest" in the state.

He said he had no role in the promotion process as a minister.

He also defended the DPC, highlighting that the majority of those promoted (138 out of 177) were from the deprived and OBC categories, suggesting that the motivations behind the accusations were rooted in political rivalry.

In a long post, he went on to accuse his former OSD, Raj Bahadur Singh, of being involved in a conspiracy to harm his and his party's political interests, including an attempt to undermine the candidature of his wife, Anupriya Patel, in the Lok Sabha elections.

Anupriya Patel is a Minister of State in the union government.

Ashish Patel also alleged the role of senior official of the Special Task Force (STF) in trying to harm his and his wife's political career. Patel also alleged state resources and media were being manipulated to tarnish his reputation.

But, he said he would not back down from defending the truth.

He ended the post by reaffirming his identity as a "descendant of Sardar Patel, the Iron Man".