Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (Independent Charge) 2019: Madhya Pradesh MP is culture minister

A five-time lawmaker Prahlad Singh Patel, who has been a strong votary of the ban on cow slaughter, has got a place in the Union council of ministers once again after 15 years. He has been given the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture (Independent Charge). An Other Backward Class (OBC) leader from Madhya Pradesh, Patel, was brought in place of senior BJP leader Uma Bharti, who did not contest the Lok Sabha polls. He got elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1989. The 57-year-old parliamentarian brought a private bill for ban on cow slaughter in Parliament way back in 2000. Moreover, he was the junior coal minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government in 2003. Patel had parted ways with the BJP in 2005 to join Umar Bharti’s outfit — Bharatiya Jan Shakti Party —  but returned to its fold after three years contesting the elections from Damoh Lok Sabha seat from where he was re-elected in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He defeated his nearest competitor Pratap Singh of Congress with a margin of 3,53,411. A four-time MP, Patel was a member of several committees in the previous Narendra Modi government like Committee on Public Undertakings, Committee on Government Assurances Member, Standing Committee on Rural Development Member. He was also a member of Executive Council of VV Giri National Labour Institute and member of the Consultative Committee in the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Patel holds BSc, LLB, MA (Philosophy) degrees. He started his political journey in 1980 as the president of the Jabalpur University Students’ Union. He subsequently held powerful positions in the BJP’s youth wing in the state. Patel, a strict vegetarian and a deeply religious man, is among the few politicians who have done the ‘Narmada Parikrama’, a walk along the banks of the river, considered sacred.