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Until Monday, very few had heard of Preeti Mahapatra. On Tuesday, she shot to instant nationwide fame.
Mahapatra is now the most talked about ‘leader’ in the ruling BJP in Gujarat, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and Chief Minister Anandiben Patel. She has created a buzz, filing her nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh, announcing assets worth ₹23.75 crore. This is learnt to be her maiden election.
In Gujarat BJP circles, Mahapatra is known to mingle with the party bigwigs rather than with the cadre.
The 37-year-old is contesting the elections as an independent candidate, in an apparent bid to scuttle the chances of veteran Congress leader Kapil Sibal.
Smaller parties Apart from BJP members in the UP Assembly, she is expected to garner votes from MLAs of smaller parties, whom Sibal is banking on to return to the Upper House.
Preeti, daughter of Deepak Raj Desai of Vadodara, is married to Harihara Mahapatra of Odisha, who later shifted base to Mumbai and became a builder.
Some BJP leaders in the south Gujarat districts of Surat and Navsari knew the Mahapatras due to their proximity to Navsari BJP MP Chandrakant Raghunath Patil, a confidant of Modi.
Mahapatra runs the NGO Krsna Leelaa Foundation, which had, in October 2014, announced a plan to build over 10,000 toilets in Navsari villages under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
However, the plan ran into controversy when the Mahapatras could pay less than ₹20 lakh for it. Preeti Mahapatra also runs a forum called Narendra Modi Vichar Manch, which, in December 2014, distributed gifts to widows in Navsari.
Controversies
Her husband has courted controversies of his own. He had announced a plan to develop India’s tallest building, in Surat, but it did not take off. In 2015, the Aurangabad police registered a case against his firm when it failed to provide an apartment in Bandra, Mumbai, to a doctor couple who had paid ₹5.5 crore, according to media reports.
Preeti and Harihar are also reported to have floated a dozen companies in various sectors and believed to own fashion stores abroad, including in Dubai.
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