PoliticsUttar Pradesh
Former IAS officer Divya Mittal launches Jan Neeti Bharat to fight UP's 2027 election
The 2013-batch officer, who quit the service last month, may contest Mirzapur Sadar. Union Minister Anupriya Patel, the local MP, says the voters will answer her.
Key points
- Divya Mittal has announced a new party, Jan Neeti Bharat, in a video on social media.
- It will contest the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly election, starting in three districts she once ran.
- Mittal has hinted she may stand from Mirzapur Sadar, a BJP-held seat.
Divya Mittal, an IAS officer who left the service a month ago after a career spent largely in Uttar Pradesh’s districts, has started her own political party and says it will fight the state’s 2027 assembly election.
Mittal announced Jan Neeti Bharat in an eight-and-a-half-minute video posted on social media. She has indicated that she may contest Mirzapur Sadar, a seat now held by the BJP, and the party is expected to begin in Mirzapur, Sant Kabir Nagar and Deoria, the districts where she served as district magistrate, before spreading across the state.
“The problem is that people are not being heard,” Mittal said. In her telling, Uttar Pradesh is short of representation, not of parties. “Politics rules over you, in Jan Neeti, you will be in charge,” she said.
From the collectorate
Mittal belongs to the 2013 batch of the IAS and spent about 13 years in government. She studied at IIT Delhi and IIM Bengaluru and worked abroad before taking the civil services examination.
As district magistrate of Mirzapur she drew attention for a piped-water project in Lahuriyadah village, and she was moved out of the district not long after. She announced her resignation on 30 August, citing personal and family reasons, and it took effect on 15 September.
Describing the response to her call for people to get in touch with her, she said: “I had set out carrying a lamp of hope.”
What she is promising
The party’s early pitch is about women’s safety and giving residents a bigger say in local development. Mittal wants workers to go door to door and to send details of government schemes, budgets and projects to people’s phones, so that they can follow how money is spent in their area.
She has also proposed a green, yellow and red rating system that would let citizens grade their schools, hospitals and roads, in the way a district office tracks its own departments.
A reply from Mirzapur
The first response came from Mirzapur’s MP, Union Minister Anupriya Patel. Without naming Mittal, she said: “The people of Mirzapur will give her the answer themselves.”
Uttar Pradesh is expected to vote in early 2027, along with Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. Mittal has not given a date or venue for a formal launch. If she does run from Mirzapur Sadar, she will be taking on the BJP in the district where her time as district magistrate drew the most attention.