MP Report Card: Mitesh Patel, BJP MP Constituency – Anand

It was, however, after the 2022 state polls that the Congress was reduced to rubble in its bastion. The party lost Borsad– once held by Madhavsinh Solanki– for the first time in electoral history. Soon after, the BJP also took over the reins in the coveted milk cooperative Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited — popularly called Amul — that had eluded the BJP since inception in 1946. The BJP was holding the post of chairman since 2017 when Congress leader and Amul chairman Ramsinh Parmar switched over to the party, and in 2022, it took over the Amul board.

MP Profile

He holds a diploma in telecom engineering, and is a businessman and agriculturist. Mitesh Patel, known as Bakabhai in his constituency, has previously been a treasurer of the Anand unit of the BJP and is also associated with the cooperatives of the district. Patel is the chairman and managing director of Laxmi Protein Products Pvt Ltd, located in Anand.

Debates he participated in

Mitesh Patel had, on December 4, 2023, emphasised on the need to promote cultivation and production of millets in the country. He stated that it required “less water and effort” as compared to the production of wheat and rice. In 2019, Patel had also urged the need to abolish GST on pulses and rice.

Patel had also raised the issue of setting up a passport seva kendra in Anand, calling it the “biggest hub for students and job seekers living abroad”. Patel had also urged the government to constitute a regulatory body to “monitor the negative impacts of social media on children and youth of the country”.

The BJP leader made headlines in 2022 when he had raised the issue of renaming India as “Bharat” or “Bharatvarsh” as deliberated by the Constituent Assembly in September 1949. Patel claimed that “India” signifies the “slavery that the country was subjected to”, as the name was given by the British East India Company.

Committees he was part of 13 Sept 2021 onwards: Member, Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas 13 Sept. 2019 onwards: Member, Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Questions asked in Parliament Patel, who is into the business of pulses, raised a question why the price of indigenous foodgrains like jowar, bajra and ragi, is very high and the steps taken by the government to reduce the prices.

He had also raised the issue of fertilizers, asking, “whether the government has banned the use of fertilizers for non-agricultural purposes and cancelled the licenses of the violating plants during these inspections”.  He has also raised the issue of integrated climate change adaptation and mitigation as well as setting up of “border haats”.

Patel had also asked whether the Union Government had any plans for exploring the sea to find raw materials. for medicines and the current status of extraction of potential drugs from the ocean particularly life saving drugs, anti-cancer, anti-tuberculosis, etc., as well as the progress made by the government in setting up offshore wind energy in the states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

Patel had also raised the issue of “toys seized at malls, airports and other places in India for lacking the quality mark of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). Patel has asked if the government had taken steps to mitigate the issue, which is a health hazard for children.

Among other questions were the financial crisis of sugar mills, international airports in the pipeline, “lack of defined moral science courses in schools”, protection and preservation of endangered languages as well as supplementary nutrition under Integrated Child Development Schemes.

Patel, in April 2022, had also raised the question whether the government had formed any opinion “regarding the inclusion of marital rape as an offence under the Indian Pencal Code and if the government acknowledges the prevelance of rape and sexual harassment in marital life”. He had also sought details of a study and research in his regard.