Keshav son’s ‘activity’ fuels speculation about Phulpur candidature
ALLAHABAD: Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s son Yogesh Maurya, 28, is said to have become suddenly active in Phulpur, giving rise to speculation that he may be fielded from this Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 parliamentary polls.
His father won the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat for the BJP for the first time in 2014, but he had to vacate it last year when he was elected to the Uttar Pradesh legislative council.
The BJP lost the seat to a joint opposition candidate, Samajwadi Party’s Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel, in the subsequent by-poll in March this year.
Yogesh, who has never been very politically active in the past, is seen these days attending functions as the chief guest in the different assembly segments that are part of the Phulpur parliamentary seat.
He is also attending meetings of BJP workers despite not having any post in the party. He is also said to hold two-hour ‘Jan Sunwai’ three days a week at his Ashok Nagar home, giving a patient hearing to people’s problems. Yogesh Maurya attended the ‘Kisan Kalyan Sammellan’ organised by the BJP city unit at Devghat Jhalwa falling under Allahabad West assembly constituency as the chief guest on July 20.
On July 18 too, he had attended a meeting of the BJP’s Bharadwaj Mandal organised near Gita Niketan as the chief guest. Yogesh had attended the party’s ‘Vishwavidyalaya Mandal’ meeting at the circuit house and another by BJP’s ‘Sadar Mandal’ at Shivpati Intermediate College in Mandar village as the chief guest.
Yogesh, a BTech degree holder from Sharda University, describes his work on the ground as “simply an effort to help people”.
“Giving ticket to a candidate is the party’s decision. As far as I am concerned, I am simply trying to help people and attending events where I am invited,” he says.
His name had briefly done the rounds as a possible candidate in 2017 for the Phulpur bypolls set for March 2018.