Kaushal Kishore

Some Lesser Known facts About Kaushal Kishore

• Kaushal Kishore is an Indian politician and social activist. On 7 July 2021, the Indian government made him Minister of State for the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

• Kaushal Kishore began his political journey in 1989 when he contested the UP Legislative Assembly elections from the Malihabad constituency, reserved for the Scheduled Castes, in Lucknow as a Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate. He lost the elections to Jagdish Chandra, a Janta Dal candidate. In the elections, Kaushal secured 8,992 votes.

• In 1991, Kaushal contested as a CPI candidate in the UP Legislative elections from the Malihabad constituency. He, however, lost the elections to Ashok Kumar of the Janata Dal. In the elections, Kaushal received 37,808 votes.

• Kaushal Kishore, as a CPI candidate, contested the 1993 UP Legislative Assembly by-elections from the Malihabad constituency. In the elections, Kaushal was defeated by Gauri Shankar, a Samajwadi Party candidate, by a margin of 6,418 votes.

• In 1998, he contested the general elections on CPI’s ticket from the Mohanganj constituency. He received 39,273 votes but lost the elections.

• In 2001, Kaushal was expelled from the Communist Party of India (CPI).

• In 2002, Kaushal Kishore contested the UP Legislative Assembly election as an independent candidate against Gauri Shankar. In the elections, Kaushal defeated Gauri by a margin of 25,535 votes.

• From 2002 to 2007, Kaushal Kishore served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA).

• Kaushal Kishore established his political party Rashtrawadi Communist Party (RCP) in 2002.

• In 2003, after Mulayam Singh Yadav became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Kaushal Kishore was appointed as a Minister of Labour since he independently became an MLA. He, however, resigned as the minister in 2004 due to disagreements between him and Mulayam.

• In 2004, on Rashtrawadi Communist Party’s ticket, Kaushal Kishore contested the Lok Sabha elections from the Mohanlalganj constituency. He did not win the elections and received a total of 28,757 votes.

• In 2007, he contested the legislative assembly elections from RCP in UP from the Malihabad constituency. Kaushal lost the elections but managed to secure a total of 40,270.

• On a ticket from the Rashtrawadi Communist Party, Kaushal Kishore contested the 2009 by-elections held in the Malihabad constituency and lost. In the elections, Siddhartha Shankar of BSP defeated Kaushal by a margin of more than 26,000 votes. The by-elections were conducted after all four seats of the Malihabad constituency fell vacant after the MLAs, who won the seats in the 2007 UP Assembly elections, defected to BSP before the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

• In 2012, Kaushal contested the UP Assembly elections from the Malihabad constituency on a ticket from the Rashtrawadi Communist Party. In the elections, he emerged as a runner-up candidate with a total of 60,567, while Indal Kumar from the Samajwadi Party emerged victorious and received 62,782 votes.

• Before joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2013, Kaushal amalgamated Rashtrawadi Communist Party with the BJP.

• Later, Kaushal became the State President of the BJP’s SC wing.

• In 2014, he contested the Lok Sabha elections from the Mohanlalganj constituency on BJP’s ticket and received 4,55,274 votes. He defeated R. K. Chaudhary, a BSP candidate, by a margin of 1,45,416 votes.

• From 1 September 2014 to 31 August 2018, Kaushal Kishore served as a member of the Standing Committee of Home Affairs, and the Consultative Committee of and Ministry of Labour and Employment.

• From 1 September 2018 to 25 May 2019, he served as a member of the Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law, and Justice.

• Kaushal was re-elected as the Member of the Parliament in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the Mohanlalganj constituency. In the elections, Kaushal defeated C. L. Verma, a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate, by a margin of 90,229 votes.

• On 7 July 2021, Kaushal became the Union Minister of State of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

  

• In the same year, Kaushal demanded fresh investigations into the 2008 Malegaon Blasts after a witness accused the Mumbai Police’s Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) of forcing him to name Yogi Adityanath and RSS as conspirators of the bomb blasts.

• After his son Akash Kishore died on 19 October 2020 due to alcohol abuse, Kaushal Kishore started an anti-drug campaign named Nasha Mukt Samaj Andolan-Abhiyan Kaushal Ka with the intent of spreading awareness about the ill effects of intoxication. He launched another anti-drug campaign named Hindustaniyo Nasha Chodo in August 2022. Talking about the campaign, Kaushal told the media,
  

  I lost my son (Aakash Kishore) to alcohol in October 2020 and after that I pledged to make India drugs free. Then I started a campaign and so far 18 lakh people have pledged to not do drugs and 10,000 have stopped using drugs as well. Despite myself being an MP and my wife an MLA, we could not save him. While poison kills instantly, any such addiction like alcohol and substance abuse kills a person very slowly. We need to protect those who have not yet become addict to liquor or any other substances. As India is celebrating Azadi Ka Amrit Mohastuv, we have decided to launch another anti drug campaign ‘Hindustaniyo Nasha Chodo’ on August 9 at Delhi University’s Sports Complex.”

  

• After the death of his elder brother Mahavir Prasad during the second wave of COVID-19, Kaushal Kishore criticised the Yogi Adityanath-led UP government over the management of the pandemic in the state.