Meet Pallavi Patel, SP candidate who defeated UP Dy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the UP elections by a huge mandate and CM Yogi Adityanath created won the Gorakhpur Assembly seat by a record margin of over 1 lakh votes. But, UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya along with 9 ministers couldn’t save their constituency.

Keshav Prasad lost the Sirathu constituency to Pallavi Patel, who fought the elections on Samajwadi Party (SP) symbol. She defeated BJP veteran by 7337 votes.

Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya was a Lok Sabha MP from Phulpur constituency in Allahabad before resigning from his position and joining the Yogi cabinet as his deputy.

In the Sirathu Assembly seat, Keshav Prasad suffered a strong challenge from SP leader Pallavi Patel. Despite a strong BJP wave, the electoral challenge proved disastrous for Keshav Prasad.
Pallavi is the daughter of Sonelal Patel, who was the founder of Apna Dal. After his death, Apna Dal suffered a split with one faction led by elder daughter Anupriya and the other led by wife Krishna. The first faction struck an alliance with NDA while the second sided with SP.

Among those who campaigned for Pallavi Patel included SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav. She is not a native of Sirathu but she cleverly devised her poll pitch to appeal to the masses and said, “if Keshav Prasad Maurya (son of the house) doesn’t deliver, the daughter-in-law has to step in.”