21.10.16

Rita Bahuguna Joshi joins BJP

Veteran Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi, the party's Uttar Pradesh chief in the last assembly polls, on Thursday joined the BJP in the presence of Amit Shah.She accused Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi of running down the grand old party and gave it as the reason for her party switch.
Joshi told reporters at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday that she quit Congress earlier in the day and sent her resignation as MLA from the Lucknow Cantonment seat to the UP assembly Speaker. Though BJP played up her entry into the party , Joshi, a known Brahmin face and daughter of former UP CM Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, has little mass base outside her constituency .
“My decision to quit the Congress was not easy... I spent 24 of my 27 years in politics in the Congress. For a short period I was in the Samajwadi Party... I have been very dismayed with the recent conduct of the Congress,“ Bahuguna told reporters.She referred to the surgical strikes and the “khoon ki dalali“ remarks made by Rahul Gandhi against the BJP .
Bahuguna hailed the surgical strikes and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to give the Army the go-ahead to do it. “I was unhappy that a national political party like the Congress was making such statements about the surgical strikes. I had expressed my ire on this attitude on twitter and stated that we should celebrate it,“ she said.
The former Allahabad mayor was reportedly disappointed with the Congress brass after former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, who was married into the prominent Brahmin family of Uma Shankar Dikshit, was made the CM candidate.She felt sidelined and was persuaded by her brother Vijay Bahuguna, who had jumped ship some months back, to join the BJP .
Rita Bahuguna took potshots at political strategist Prashant Kishor as well. Holding Kishor responsible for the recent decisions in the Congress, Bahuguna said he had become a “director“ which is not acceptable.

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