Lucknow: The 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections may still be a few months away, but the political churn has already begun. On Thursday, former IAS officer Divya Mittal announced the launch of her own political party, Jan Neeti Bharat, and declared that the fledgling outfit will contest the state polls due early next year. She also made it clear that she intends to contest from Mirzapur, the eastern UP district where she served as district magistrate not long ago.
The announcement came through a video message posted on X, in which Mittal framed her party as a break from business-as-usual politics. Her core promise is simple: to put ordinary citizens at the centre of policymaking and keep governments accountable to them through the full five-year term, not just on election day. “Politics rules over you. In Jan Neeti, you will be the ones who rule,” she said, unveiling the party’s name and vision.
Who is Divya Mittal
Mittal’s resume is the kind that usually stays inside the bureaucracy. An alumna of IIT Delhi and IIM Bengaluru, she began her professional life as a Wall Street trader before entering the Indian Administrative Service. She spent 13 years in the IAS, with her last posting as special secretary in the Uttar Pradesh revenue department.
She opted for voluntary retirement on August 30, and on September 29 she announced her entry into politics through an X post, inviting people to join what she called a new approach to public service. The response, she says, was overwhelming, with hundreds of messages pouring in on a phone number she had shared publicly. Thursday’s launch of Jan Neeti Bharat is the formal next step in that journey.
What Jan Neeti Bharat stands for
In her video message, Mittal laid out three pledges that will anchor the party’s pitch to voters:
- People at the centre of policy: Citizens, not politicians, should shape the decisions that affect their lives. Farmers must shape farm policy, traders must shape trade policy, and parents and children must have a say in how schools are run.
- Decisions based on need, not identity: Every public decision, from roads and handpumps to drains, lights and health centres, should be guided by where the need is greatest, not by caste, religion, influence or status.
- Accountability through the term: Elected representatives must answer to citizens throughout their five years in office, instead of remembering them only at election time.
The party will campaign door-to-door with the slogan “Not politics, but Jan Neeti”, a line that captures Mittal’s central argument. In her words, the problem is not that India has too few parties, but that too few people are heard. Political parties may look like rivals, she argued, but they agree on keeping decision-making out of the hands of ordinary people.
Why Mirzapur
The choice of Mirzapur is deeply personal and politically loaded at the same time. Mittal served as the district’s magistrate from September 2022 to September 2023, and she says public pressure from residents played a part in her decision to contest from there.
During her tenure, she earned public appreciation for development and welfare initiatives, the most talked-about being the delivery of piped water to Lahuria Dah, a remote village in hilly terrain, in August 2023, which ended a decades-old water crisis for its residents.
But Mirzapur is no easy battlefield. The district is considered a stronghold of Union minister and Apna Dal (S) chief Anupriya Patel, who has won the Mirzapur Lok Sabha seat in 2014, 2019 and 2024. In the 2022 assembly elections, the BJP-Apna Dal (S) alliance swept all five assembly segments in the district: Chhanbey, Mirzapur, Majhawan, Chunar and Marihan. BJP’s Ratnakar Mishra won the Mirzapur assembly seat itself in both 2017 and 2022.
The long road for a debut party
Launching a new party and winning elections are two very different things, and Uttar Pradesh has seen plenty of debut outfits struggle to find space between established giants. What Mittal has in her favour is a clean bureaucratic record, a recognizable personal brand in Mirzapur, and a message of citizen accountability that resonates with voter fatigue.
For now, UP’s crowded political arena has one more player, and its most distinctive feature is a former bureaucrat promising that this time, the people will rule.
FAQs
When did Divya Mittal launch her party?
She announced Jan Neeti Bharat on Thursday, October 15, through a video message on X, a little over a month after opting for voluntary retirement from the IAS.
Will Jan Neeti Bharat contest the 2027 UP elections?
Yes. Mittal confirmed the party will contest the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections due early next year, and she will herself contest from Mirzapur.
Who is Divya Mittal?
An IIT Delhi and IIM Bengaluru alumna, former Wall Street trader and former IAS officer with a 13-year career. She served as Mirzapur district magistrate from September 2022 to September 2023.
Why is she contesting from Mirzapur?
She says public pressure from the district played a role. She is known there for her development work as DM, though the seat is an Apna Dal (S)-BJP stronghold, with Anupriya Patel winning the Lok Sabha seat three times in a row.
What does “Jan Neeti” mean?
Literally “people’s policy”. The party’s slogan is “Not politics, but Jan Neeti”, signalling that citizen-driven policymaking is its core promise.
Informeia will track Jan Neeti Bharat’s campaign and the 2027 UP elections as they develop.
