Even though the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made a clean sweep in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, there was one competition on which all eyes were fixed till late in the evening, that was the battle for the Sirathu assembly seat. In this constituency, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya was defeated by Pallavi Patel of Apna Dal (Kamarawadi) faction, who was fighting on the Samajwadi Party (SP) symbol.
Patel’s victory is a major defeat for the BJP, as the incumbent deputy CM was contesting from this seat. Patel won the seat by 7,337 votes with 1,05,559 votes compared to Maurya’s 98,727. A total of 18 candidates were in the fray from here.
Earlier on Thursday, during the counting of votes, there was a time when Patel was leading by a few thousand votes and the counting had to be stopped for some time. Soon after, Patel reached the centre, after which the counting of votes resumed and she emerged victorious.
family drama
Patel is the National Vice President of Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) and sister of Anupriya Patel from Apna Dal (S) faction of BJP. Patel’s in-laws are in Koripur of Manjhanpur assembly of Kaushambi.
It was believed that her victory from this seat would not be easy, as Patel was contesting against a BJP stalwart. However, he proved all the predictions and pollsters wrong.
Pallavi Patel is the elder daughter of Apna Dal’s national president Late Sonelal Patel. After the death of the father, a dispute with Anupriya divided the party. Patel formed Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) with his mother Krishna, while Anupriya and her husband formed Apna Dal(S).
I am Sirathu’s daughter-in-law: Patel
Anupriya’s faction had managed to win this seat in 2017. During election campaign, clashes broke out between supporters of SP and BJP in several villages of this constituency.
Patel said she is Sirathu’s daughter-in-law and raised issues like inflation and unemployment. People close to her revealed that she focused more on women voters and also raised the issue of stray animals.
Big names like SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, his wife and former SP MP Dimple Yadav campaigned for Patel along with SP’s Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan.
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