Meet Prahlad Patel: Union Minister Who Is Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Probable
NDTV
Prahlad Patel is the minister of state for food processing and Jal Shakti.
Elected as a Member of Parliament for the first time in 1989 and brought back into the Union Cabinet after 15 years in 2019, Prahlad Patel now faces a new political challenge - fighting the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls from Narsinghpur - amid speculation that he may be the BJP's chief ministerial candidate in the state.
One of seven MPs, and three Union Ministers, who will be contesting the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, 63-year-old Prahlad Patel began his political journey by fighting and winning the Lok Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh in 1989. He won again in 1996 and 1999 and a pivotal moment in Mr Patel's career came when, during a cabinet reshuffle under then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he was made the minister of state for coal in 2003.
Mr Patel held the position for a year, until the National Democratic Alliance was voted out and the United Progressive Alliance won in 2004. The BJP leader contested the Lok Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh's Damoh in 2014 and won again from there in 2019.