Former IAS officer Divya Mittal has said her newly formed political party, Jan Neeti Bharat, intends to contest all 403 seats in the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election if it can find suitable candidates.
Mittal made the announcement while addressing supporters in Mirzapur, where she also confirmed that the party plans to field a candidate from Chunar.
The declaration significantly expands the scale of the political project she announced earlier this month.
Jan Neeti Bharat was launched on October 15 after Mittal left the Indian Administrative Service following a 13-year career.
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Party Wants Presence Across Uttar Pradesh
Mittal said the party intends to contest across Uttar Pradesh rather than restrict itself to a handful of constituencies.
She said candidates would be fielded wherever the party identifies people it considers strong enough to contest.
That is an ambitious target for a newly formed organisation.
Uttar Pradesh has 403 Assembly constituencies, meaning Jan Neeti Bharat would need to identify hundreds of candidates, create district-level organisational structures and build a campaign network across India’s most populous state.
Mittal has said the party does not have the financial resources for a conventional high-cost campaign.
Instead, she wants it to rely heavily on door-to-door outreach.
Her model is based on supporters treating individual homes as campaign offices and taking the party’s message directly to voters.
The effectiveness of that approach will depend on how quickly the party can build a ground organisation before the election.
Mittal Left IAS After 13-Year Career
Mittal is a 2013-batch IAS officer who resigned from service earlier this year.
Her resignation became effective in September.
During her career in Uttar Pradesh, she served in several administrative roles, including as district magistrate of Mirzapur, Deoria and Sant Kabir Nagar.
She is also an alumna of IIT Delhi and IIM Bengaluru and worked in the private sector before joining the civil services.
Mittal formally announced her entry into politics on September 29.
At the time, she said she would begin her political journey in Uttar Pradesh and ruled out joining an established party.
Two weeks later, she announced the formation of Jan Neeti Bharat.
‘People Should Be Central to Policymaking’
The central theme of Mittal’s political pitch is public participation in governance.
She has argued that citizens should have a stronger role in policymaking rather than engaging with elected representatives only during elections.
At the launch of Jan Neeti Bharat, she said the government should remain accountable to citizens throughout its five-year term.
The party has therefore positioned itself around the idea of continuous public participation.
Mittal has also criticised a political system in which ordinary people often depend on MLAs or other representatives to act as intermediaries between them and the government.
Her stated objective is to create a structure where elected representatives remain directly accountable to residents.
These are political commitments rather than implemented policies, and the party has yet to publish a detailed manifesto explaining how such a system would work in practice.
Mirzapur Likely to Remain Key Base
Mirzapur is expected to play an important role in Mittal’s early political organisation.
She previously served as district magistrate there and gained local visibility during her administrative tenure.
One initiative associated with her tenure involved efforts to provide piped drinking water to the remote Lahuriyadah village.
Mittal has also indicated that she could personally contest from the Mirzapur Sadar constituency.
However, no final candidate announcement has been made.
Reports suggest the party may initially concentrate organisational efforts in Mirzapur, Sant Kabir Nagar and Deoria, districts where Mittal previously served.
Expanding from those areas to all 403 constituencies would represent a much larger organisational challenge.
New Party Enters Crowded UP Political Landscape
Jan Neeti Bharat will enter a state political landscape already dominated by large, established parties with extensive organisational networks.
The Bharatiya Janata Party currently leads the Uttar Pradesh government, while the Samajwadi Party remains the principal opposition force.
Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and several regional parties also compete across the state.
Mittal’s party will therefore have to establish its identity while competing for candidates, workers, funding and voter attention.
Its decision to contest widely could help increase visibility.
At the same time, contesting hundreds of seats requires significant election-management capacity, including candidate vetting, legal compliance, polling agents and local campaign teams.
The coming months will show whether Jan Neeti Bharat can convert its governance-focused message into a statewide political organisation.
What this means for you:
Jan Neeti Bharat’s 403-seat plan turns Divya Mittal’s political entry into a statewide experiment rather than a limited local campaign. The key test will be whether the party can build credible candidates and organisational strength before the 2027 election.
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