Opportunity to put forth vision for development: SP RS candidate Alok Ranjan

Lucknow: Politics is the best chance to serve the country as one can offer a vision for development, former Uttar Pradesh chief secretary Alok Ranjan, who is set to start his journey in electoral politics as a Rajya Sabha candidate from the state, said.

Ranjan, who has been fielded along with Ramji Lal Suman and Jaya Bachchan by the SP for the February 27 Rajya Sabha polls, expressed confidence that all the three party nominees will win the polls for the 10 upper house seats from Uttar Pradesh.

The 1978-batch IAS officer said, "Politics gives the best chance to serve the country (even) beyond the civil services".

"Conducting elections is a different thing. It is an administrative thing, and by contesting the elections, you become a part of the political process, which is a different ball game altogether," Ranjan told PTI in an interview.

"I have not yet got acclimatised at all (new political set-up). I have been an officer, and whatever posting I got, they were on merit, and it is my intellectual capacity and performance, which has counted," he asserted.

On whether he was ready to take the political plunge, Ranjan said, "Politics is the best chance to serve the country beyond civil services, because you are not constrained by rules and procedure to a significant extent as well, and you can offer a vision." Asked about the prospects of the SP candidates, the former UP chief secretary also said, "We are a few short of the required numbers, but the other group is far more short of the required numbers. I am confident that all the SP candidates would smoothly sail through in the polls." On reservation expressed by the SP ally Apna Dal (Kamerwadi)'s leader Pallavi Patel (SP MLA from Sirathu in Kaushambi district) over the choice of candidates fielded by the SP, Ranjan said, "It is actually about me and Jaya Bachchan. They have said the elements of PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) should have been there".

Ranjan hails from the Kayasth caste.

"However, I feel the choice has been made by the party's leadership. Rajya Sabha is a different ball game altogether, where you have to project intellectually about policies, laws and Acts," he said.

"In Rajya Sabha these things matter also. If you see the other side (BJP), a lot of ex-foreign service people have been nominated to the Rajya Sabha," he noted.

Recently, speaking to PTI videos, Patel had said, "I think PDA defines Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak. The list which has come up, in that people are making an effort to make (others) understand that Bachchan and Ranjan are PDA. I have only this much to say that if we are committed to the rights of the PDA, and we are fighting (for it) on the streets, then why are we not there, when the point of 'bhagidari' (participation) comes up?"

Asked about his priorities if he is elected to the Rajya Sabha, the 67-year-old retired bureaucrat said, "My priorities will be anything to do with the welfare of citizens. My first love is education. The youth needs high quality employment, so that they get employed. This is what I will focus upon." Ranjan, a graduate from Delhi's St Stephen's college and MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad, was appointed chief secretary by the Akhilesh Yadav government in 2014. He has also served as the Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner and Agriculture Production Commissioner of the state.

He retired on July 1, 2016, and was appointed as the chief advisor to the Chief Minister and chairman of UP State Industrial Development Corporation having the status of a Cabinet minister.

Besides being an advisor to the then chief minister (Akhilesh Yadav), Ranjan was behind implementation of the ambitious projects of the then SP government such as the Lucknow-Agra Expressway, DIAL-100, Lucknow Metro rail, etc.

Elections for the 56 Rajya Sabha seats spread across 15 states are scheduled to be held on February 27.

In the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the BJP has 252 members, the SP 108 and the Congress has two.

BJP allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 13 members, while the NISHAD party has six in the House. The RLD has nine members, SBSP has six, Jansatta Dal Loktantrik has two and BSP has one. Four seats are vacant.

A candidate needs 37 first preference votes to secure a seat in the Rajya Sabha.