Son of PM’s former aide is BJP pick for Shravasti seat

Son of PM’s former aide is BJP pick for Shravasti seat

The BJP on Saturday announced Saket Misra (53), the son of Nripendra Misra, former principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as its candidate from Shravasti Lok Sabha constituency. At present, Misra is a member of the UP legislative council. Before entering politics, Saket Misra has tried his hand at many things. An IIM Calcutta graduate, he was working with a bank when he gave it up “within a month” to focus on the civil services. He qualified for the IPS but did not join it, worked abroad including in some prestigious banks for 18 years, and then decided to return home with the desire to do “social work”.

Saket found a place in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council in April last year. His father Nripendra Misra was once considered among the most powerful bureaucrats in the Prime Minister’s Office. At present, Misra Senior is chairman of the construction committee of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, set up by the government for the building of the Ayodhya temple.

After returning to India, Saket first started a firm dealing in private equity in the MSME sector in Delhi. Sources close to him say his heart, though, was in social service, underlining that it was not really politics that attracted him.

By 2017, when the BJP came to power in UP with a comprehensive majority and Yogi Adityanath became Chief Minister, Saket started becoming a known face in Lucknow circles. According to sources, Adityanath was among the first senior people in the BJP that Saket called on and the CM told him to focus on eastern UP.

Saket chose Shravasti district, where his maternal grandfather Badlu Ram Shukla’s home was, to make his start. Shukla was a five-term Lok Sabha MP from Bahraich.

In his initial phase in politics, Saket started with informal meetings with small groups of people, including BJP workers. Soon, the party started calling him to its organisational programmes, while the BJP youth wing turned to him for its interactive events at colleges.

By 2018, Saket was a BJP member, and a year later, was appointed as an adviser to the Poorvanchal Vikas Board to advise the government on holistic development of eastern UP, covering around 27 districts. Saket is an adjunct faculty (finance) at the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, run under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

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