New Delhi: Former IAS officer Divya Mittal has announced her entry into Uttar Pradesh politics after 13 years in the civil services. She said on September 29 that she would enter electoral life and work independently in the state. She has not joined any political party and has not formally announced the assembly seat from which she will contest the 2027 Uttar Pradesh election.
If she contests the seat as an independent and wins, she would break a long record. It is an SC-reserved constituency in Mirzapur district and has seen several parties win elections over the decades. The election history of the constituency shows why an independent campaign would be unusual on this seat.
Chhanbey Assembly constituency in Mirzapur is among the seats being discussed as a possible choice for her 2027 election bid. No independent candidate has won the Chhanbey Assembly seat since 1967. In her September 29 video message, she said that she wanted to enter politics to become a voice for people whose problems often do not reach the government. The seat was won by Brahmanand Shastri of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1967. Sriniwas Prasad Singh won it for the Congress in 1969. It again went to the Congress in 1974, 1977, 1980 and 1985 when Purushottam Das kept winning the seat. The Janata Dal won the seat in 1989 and 1991. The Bahujan Samaj Party won in 1993, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1996 and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) again in 2002 and 2004. The BSP’s Suryabhan won in 2007. Samajwadi Party leader Bhai Lal Kol won in 2012. Apna Dal (Sonelal) then took the seat in 2017, when Rahul Prakash Kol won by a large margin. He retained the seat in the 2022 assembly election with 1,02,502 votes. His closest rival, SP’s Kirti, received 64,389 votes. Kol died after the election, leading to a bypoll in 2023. His wife Rinki Kol contested for the Apna Dal (Sonelal) and defeated Kirti Kol of the SP by 9,587 votes. Independent candidates have contested Chhanbey over the years, but none has won the seat since the 1967 election. Independent candidates were also present in several elections after 1967. They included candidates in the 1977, 1980, 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1996 contests, but none reached the winning position.
She said that her political journey would begin in Uttar Pradesh and would be based on public support rather than an existing political party.
