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Alok Kumar Mehta

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Alok Kumar Mehta
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office
May 2004 – April 2009
Preceded byManjay Lal
Succeeded byAshwamedh Devi
ConstituencySamastipur
Minister for Revenue and Land Reforms, Government of Bihar[1]
In office
16 August 2022 – 20 January 2024
Member of Bihar Legislative Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office
November 2015
Preceded byDurga Pratap Singh
ConstituencyUjiarpur
National General Secretary of Rashtriya Janata Dal
Incumbent
Assumed office
Incumbent[2]
Minister of Education, Government of Bihar
In office
20 January 2024[3] – 28 January 2024
Preceded byChandrashekhar Yadav
Succeeded byVijay Kumar Chaudhary
Personal details
Born (1966-11-03) 3 November 1966 (age 58)
Political partyRashtriya Janata Dal
SpouseSeema Prasad
Children3

Alok Kumar Mehta (born 3 November 1966[4]) is an Indian politician from the state of Bihar. He is a founder member of Rashtriya Janata Dal and has served as Principal General Secretary of the party. Mehta is said to be political mentor of Tejashwi Yadav.[5]

Political career

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A son of Tulsidas Mehta,[6] Alok Kumar Mehta was elected a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the Ujiyarpur state assembly constituency in the 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election. He served as Minister to the Department of Co-operatives in the Government of Bihar,[6] until 2017 when the Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar resigned. His sister Suheli Mehta is also a politician who joined Janata Dal (United), a rival political party of RJD in 2017.[7]

Mehta has also been a Member of Parliament from the Ujiarpur Lok Sabha constituency in 2004. He later lost the seat to Ashwamedh Devi, the widow of veteran Pradip Mahto in 2009.[8] Mehta has been associated with Rashtriya Janata Dal at different times under different charges. He has been the incharge of the RJD for seven states and National General Secretary of youth RJD. He also served as the state General Secretary of Youth Rashtriya Janata Dal.[9]

In his capacity as the Member of Parliament, he has served as the Member of Committee on Private Members` Bills and Resolutions, Member of Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture; Member of Committee on Absence of Members from the Sittings of the House; Member of Parliamentary Forum on Youth and Member of Committee on Transport, Tourism & Culture.[9]

Mehta has also served as the General Secretary of the RJD. In August 2020, while serving in his capacity as the General Secretary of the party he expelled the three rebel MLAs of the party amidst the upcoming polls of 2020 to Bihar Legislative Assembly.[2]

In 2020 elections to Bihar assembly, Mehta defeated Sheel Kumar Roy of Bhartiya Janata Party with a margin of over 23000 votes to retain Ujiarpur seat.[10]

In 2023, following the anti- coalition politics of Upendra Kushwaha, the possibility of denting of Kushwaha Vote Bank led Mahagathbandhan (Bihar) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to project Mehta as the leader of Kushwaha caste. In February 2023, RJD organised the celebration of birth anniversary of the socialist leader Jagdeo Prasad, in a bid to reach the community. In all such reach out campaigns, Mehta was kept at the forefront by the party. In one such program organised by RJD, Mehta ensured his community that they will get proper share in the power structure on the behalf of RJD.[11]

Tenure as Minister for Revenue and Land Reform

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Alok Kumar Mehta as minister for revenue and land reform (standing to the left of Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar), during Samadhan Yatra (reachout campaign of Chief Minister to oversee implementation of schemes.)

In 2022, Mehta was serving as the revenue and land reforms minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet. As revenue minister, he announced that the ministry has formulated a program for providing the homestead land to landless households from Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribe and Other Backward Class families. A mobile app was also launched by him, which would register the beneficiary, and give information about the families, which are landless. Mehta announced that government will provide 5 decimals of land to the landless households, and at places where government land is not available, the government will purchase land for this purpose.[12]

In 2024, Mehta was serving as the Minister of Education in the Nitish Kumar cabinet.[13]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Department of Revenue". Archived from the original on 13 August 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Rashtriya Janata Dal expels 3 MLAs for anti-party activities". Newsonair.com. Archived from the original on 14 September 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  3. ^ "cabinet reshuffle". India Today. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
  4. ^ "Member profile - 134" (PDF). Bihar Vidhan Sabha. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 April 2020.
  5. ^ "Nitish Kumar's Bihar team: 7 Masters, 9 graduates and 12 who went to school". Indian Express. 23 November 2015. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  6. ^ a b "Nitish Kumar's Bihar team: 7 Masters, 9 graduates and 12 who went to school". 22 November 2015. Archived from the original on 5 December 2015.
  7. ^ "RJD-minister-kin-joins-dal". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  8. ^ "ujiarpur-grapples-with-new-caste-equations-delimitation-changes-constituency-s-constitution-not-its-share-of-problems". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  9. ^ a b "Members profile". Archived from the original on 14 September 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  10. ^ "Ujiarpur election result". news18. Archived from the original on 14 November 2020. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  11. ^ "Bihar: Rashtriya Janata Dal bid to reach out to Kushwaha community". Times of India. Archived from the original on 16 March 2023. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  12. ^ "Survey for identifying landless households begins with launch of app". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  13. ^ "Mehta takes charge as edu min, praises ACS Pathak". timesofindia. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
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