When rookie Preeti gave veteran Sibal the jitters

Lucknow: On May 26, when Preeti Mahapatra filed her nomination papers for Rajya Sabha from UP, she was dismissed as just another ambitious aspirant. Hardly anyone had imagined that the 38-year-old wife of a Mumbai-based businessman would end up giving a fright to Congress’s former law minister Kapil Sibal in a close finish.
Believed to be a BJP spoiler in UP, Preeti cut into various political parties to get 18 votes.The suspense was over on Saturday evening when it transpired that the social worker from Gujarat not only got five votes from the BJP, but three from Congress, three from SP and four from BSP. Three Independents, including mafia don Brijesh Singh’s kin Sushil Singh, too, chipped in for her.
The cross-voting in her favour gave the jitters to Sibal, who found himself on the edge even as only 22 of 29 Congress MLAs gave him their first preference votes.
The 67-year-old legal eagle was reportedly left shuddering as his contest with Preeti went down to the wire. He breathed easy only after two MLAs of Ajit Singh-led RLD and one independent voted in his favour.
The game still wasn’t over as the second round of voting had begun. But, backed by second preferential votes from BSP MLAs, Sibal made it home. Preeti did not get any second preferential votes to further scare to Sibal, who claimed support “across party lines”.
Preeti maintained her cool and had lunch with SP bigwigs like Amar Singh after the voting. To her detractors, she said after the results, “I will come back!”