PRAYAGRAJ: The election in the high-profile Sirathu assembly constituency of Kaushambi district is being touted as a ‘Beta’ Vs ‘Bahu’ contest locally.
Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya is holding small public meetings in Sirathu, Kasia, Kada and Ajuha mandals of the constituency to garner support while the party has deployed a team of 7,500 panna pramukhs to connect with 3.75 lakh voters.
The challenger, Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader Pallavi Patel is relying on combination of Pasi, Patel, Muslim, and Yadav voters and seeking their votes with the claim that she is the real ‘Bahu’ of Sirathu.
The contest between the two political heavyweights is turning interesting as one claims to be the ‘Beta’ of Sirathu and the other as its ‘Bahu’.
Due to the presence of a sizeable number of Kurmi, Muslim and Yadav voters in the constituency, the Samajwadi Party (SP) camp is expected to give a tough fight to Deputy CM on his home turf.
After filing her nomination papers, Pallavi had indirectly targeted the Deputy CM for his failure to deliver on the home turf and asserted that responsibility should be handed over to the real ‘Bahu’ and the time has come when voters should give her a chance.
Pallavi is married to Pankaj Niranjan Singh, who hails from Koripur village, in Sadar area of Kaushambi while Maurya hails from Sirathu in Kaushambi.
Pallavi’s supporters and Samajwadi Party workers are also knocking the doors to garner support, while each Panna Pramukh and his team is contacting 60 voters in their respective areas.
Maurya has taken command of his campaign and is holding public rallies in all mandals to interact with voters directly.
Sirathu assembly seat has around 3.75 lakh voters, including 2.01 lakh males and 1.79 lakh females, comprising of 55,000 Pasis, 50,000 Muslims, 35,000 Patels, 28,000 SC, 22,000 Yadavs, 25,000 Brahmins, 18,000 Pals, 28,000 Vaishyas, and others.
BJP co-convener (media) Ashish Gupta told TOI, “Our candidate Deputy CM Keshav Maurya is interacting with voters directly while our teams of panna pramukh and party workers are working hard to ensure a record win from Sirathu assembly seat. Maurya had won the Sirathu seat in 2012 when the Samajwadi Party had won a majority. However, in the 2014 by-election, the Samajwadi Party had snatched the seat from BJP.
In 2017, BJP candidate Sheetla Prasad had defeated SP’s Vachaspati by over 26,000 votes.
Political observers say the Sirathu contest has become particularly interesting since BSP also changed its candidate and fielded Musab Usmani as its candidate.
