Vadodara woman springs surprise, enters Rajya Sabha poll fray in UP

Surat: Preeti Harihara Mahapatra, 36, who took political circles in Uttar Pradesh by storm by filing nomination as an independent candidate for Rajya Sabha on Tuesday , is a known face in social circles of Surat and Navsari districts. She apparently has support of BJP MLAs who filed her nomination form.
Preeti, daughter of Deepak Raj Desai who hails from Vadodara, is married to Mumbai-ba sed builder Harihara Mahapatra.The couple is considered close to Navsari MP and Narendra Modi confidant C R Paatil. The Mahapatras used to live in Vadodara after marriage and later shifted to Mumbai.
The couple was in news last year when Aurangabad police registered a cheating complaint by a gynaecologist couple for Rs 5.5 crore. The doctor couple was offered a flat in a building project in Bandra in Mumbai which never came up.The Mahapatras had met the doctor couple in 2011for infertility treatment.
On October 2, 2014, Preeti's Krsna Leelaa Foundation took up the task of building over 10,000 toilets in villages falling in Paatil's cons lets in villages falling in Paatil's constituency under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan but paid only Rs19 lakh for the purpose.
In December 2014, Preeti garnered huge crowds of women at the `Modi Samarthak Mahila Programme' in her capacity as president of Narendra Modi Vicharak Manch. At this programme, kits were distributed to hundreds of widows in the city by Paatil and Mahapatra.
Soon, Harihara Mahapatra announced his ambitious plans to construct the country's tallest building at the upcoming Diamond Research and Mercantile (DREAM) city project in Khajod. However, the project could not take off.
Preeti and Harihara are believed to be heading half a dozen companies dealing with aviation, telemedia, hospitality, real estate, gems and jewellery, fashion etc. They reportedly own some fashion stores at Dubai airport.