Keshav Prasad Maurya had won Sirathu for BJP in 2012. (PTI File photo)
Dr Pallavi Patel wins Sirathu seat by 7337 votes. She defeated BJP's Keshav Prasad Maurya.
Contestants in the fray included BJP's Keshav Prasad Maurya, SP's Pallavi Patel, BSP's Munsab Ali, Congress' Seema Devi, AAP's Vishnu Kumar, Shiv Sena's Rajesh Kumar, Lok Dal's Rajendra Sonkar, AIMIM's Sher Mohammad and Bahujan Mukti Party's Dhiraj Kumar.
The sitting MLA is Sheetla Prasad from BJP who had defeated SP’s Vachaspati by more than 26,000 votes in the 2017 state elections. BSP’s candidate in that election, Saeedurrab had put up a good fight, coming third with 43,782 votes or 22.3% vote share.
This had been a BSP stronghold since the 1990s and it was Keshav Prasad who won it for BJP first, in 2012.
The deputy Chief Minister of UP, Keshav Prasad Maurya contested for the 2014 parliamentary elections Phulpur constituency in Allahabad and won. A few years later, in 2017, he resigned from his MP position to join the state assembly as Yogi Adityanath’s deputy.
In the state polls, he had a strong opponent from the SP camp in Pallavi Patel. Pallavi is the daughter of Sonelal Patel, who was the founder of Apna Dal and even the Bahujan Samaj Party. After his death Apna Dal split, with one faction led by his elder daughter Anupriya and the other led by his wife Krishna. The first faction joined hands with NDA, while the second sided with SP.
Pallavi even had party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his wife campaign for her.
Pallavi has said that her priorities will be development, health infrastructure and improving employment opportunities. She is not a native of Sirathu, but has married Pankaj Niranjan Singh who is from the district of Kaushambi. Her pitch is that when the son of the house (Keshav Prasad Maurya) fails to deliver, the daughter-in-law has to step in.
BSP changed candidates midway. It had earlier chosen Santosh Tripathi, a Brahmin. But later, it picked Munsab Ali Usmani.
