Akhilesh Das

Akhilesh Das Gupta (b. 1961) is an Indian politician, currently representing the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the Rajya Sabha. Earlier he had long been in an Rajya Sabha MP with the Indian National Congress party. He has never won a general election seat in any legislative body.

He is the son of Banarasi Das, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Political career

1996 to 2008, while with the Indian National Congress party, he was nominated (elected by the State Legislature) to the Rajya Sabha in 1996 and 2002, and then by the BSP in November 2008^[1]. He served as Minister of State for Steel in the Manmohan Singh cabinet, but was dropped in April 2008 after it was discovered that he was parlaying with Mayawati for shifting to BSP^[2].

One month after being dropped from the Union cabinet, he resigned from the Congress Party. Four days later he joined the BSP, which had been widely expected to do well in the elections. He was made the party's National General Secretary. Siraj Mehndi and some other supporters also switched to BSP along with him^[3].

In May 2009, Das ran in Lucknow, but he lost the elections, coming third behind Lalji Tandon of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and his erstwhile party leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi of the Congress.

During the elections, he had gathered flak from the Election Commission for making sexist remarks^[4] about Samajwadi Party candidate Nafisa Ali^[5].

Earlier, in 1993, he had been the Mayor of Lucknow. Elected to the mayorship while very young, he is alleged to have quickly acquired a fortune by underpricing prime land to developers^[2]. He was also the secretary of the Congress in May 2003.

Personal life

Das has done his secondary education from Colvin Taluqdars'college, Lucknow. Das holds degrees in Law, Public Administration and Management, and a Doctorate in Business Administration^[6]. He is the owner of three engineering colleges and a dental college. He also owns several small newspapers in Lucknow, including the Jansatta Express.^{[citation needed]}

He had been a badminton player in his youth and represented the State at the national championships in the late 1980s. He is now involved in Sports administration and is the Vice president of the Badminton Association of India.

From 1998 till 2004 he also served on the Board of the All India Council of Technical Education.

Das is married Alka Das, an has a son and a daughter.

References

1. ^ Profile on Rajya Sabha website
2. ^ ^{a b} http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/may/06das.htm : "From virtually nothing, today he owns three engineering colleges, a dental college as well as a college of management"
3. ^ http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/may/10maya.htm
4. ^ http://newshopper.sulekha.com/topic//akhilesh/news/bsp-s-akhilesh-das-draws-all-round-flak-for-remarks.htm : "At a poll rally here Monday evening, Das - who left the Congress to join the BSP - described Nafisa as a 'burhiya' (old woman) with 'white hair'."
5. ^ http://www.indianexpress.com/news/ec-seeks-report-on-das-remark-on-nafisa-ali/448470/
6. ^ http://www.bbdnitm.edu/chairman.htm

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Name	Das, Akhilesh
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