UP minister Jitin Prasada, ex-Rahul Gandhi aide, who is in a spot over Yogi’s PWD crackdown

The Adityanath government’s crackdown on his OSD Pandey – who had also served with him in Delhi when he was a minister in the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government – and PWD officials over graft charges has dealt a blow to Prasada. Two days after their removal / suspension, he finally broke his silence to express, in a statement, his commitment to CM Adityanath’s leadership and to appreciate the steps taken by the government against corruption.

He also sought to scotch reports that he had resentment against the Adityanath government.

Prasada’s position was in contrast to the stance taken by some ministers like Brajesh Pathak and Dinesh Khatik, who recently made dissenting voices against the functioning of the government by targeting senior bureaucrats.

The son of Congress stalwart Jitendra Prasada, Jitin Prasada started his innings with the grand old party from its youth wing, Indian Youth Congress. He had been part of Rahul Gandhi’s team. Despite being elected as an MP for the first time in 2004, from his home turf Shahjahanpur, he was inducted into the Congress-led UPA government 1.0 as a minister of state (MoS). He had also been part of the UPA 2.0 ministry.

Prasada was known to be vocal on various issues during his stint with the Congress. He made a pitch for class-based reservation. He also took out the Brahmin Chetna Yatra to mobilise the Brahman community. He was also part of the dissident group of Congress leaders, called G-23, who wrote a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in August 2020 to demand leadership reforms in the party.

He switched from the Congress to the BJP in June 2021, which was projected by the saffron party as the induction of a “Brahmin” leader into its fold. In the run-up to the February-March 2022 polls, it was the time when the Adityanath government was facing allegations of being “pro-Thakur and anti-Brahmin”.

Within a few months of his joining the BJP, Prasada was inducted into the Yogi cabinet as a minister for technical education and was nominated as the party MLC.

When the BJP returned to power early this year, Prasada was inducted into the Adityanath cabinet 2.0. And this time he was allocated the plum PWD portfolio.

The PWD is considered to be one of the major government departments with large budgets and massive scope for public outreach. Under the governments of different parties in UP over the last few decades, the PWD has always been allocated to a minister close to their leadership.

In the Mayawati-led BSP government, the PWD portfolio was given to Nasimuddin Siddiqui. During the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party regime, it was allocated to his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav. And during the first tenure of the Adityanath government from 2017 to 2022, it was given to Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Much to the surprise of many, Prasada was “rewarded” with the PWD portfolio within about six months of his joining the party. Sources said he was also cautious about his new responsibility.

Prasada’s department has been given the task of constructing a key corridor near Kashi Vishwanath in Varanasi – Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency – among other significant projects.

Sources said that like several ministers in the Adityanath government 2.0, Prasada was also not happy with the functioning of his subordinate officers, but he chose not to come out to vent his grievances like Deputy CM Brijesh Pathak, minister of medical and health department, and Dinesh Khatik, MoS, Jal Shakti.

Meanwhile, some leaders of the Opposition Congress have demanded that the action against the PWD officials was not sufficient and that the department’s “irregularities” should be probed by agencies like the Enforcement Directorate.