Senior Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi is likely to join Bharatiya Janata Party, ahead of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. Sources close to her said Joshi is upset with the party for having projected an “outsider” in Sheila Dikshit as CM candidate.
Joshi, who is currently the MLA from Lucknow Cantonment constituency, has met BJP president Amit Shah and other senior leaders.
Joshi had led the party in the last assembly polls in the state in which Congress came a poor fourth.
Another source claimed that, ever since her brother and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna switched over to the BJP, she was sidelined in the party.
Notably, Joshi, former Uttar Pradesh Congress president, younger sister of Vijay Bahuguna, former Uttarakhand chief minister, was assigned the task by the Congress high command to persuade her elder brother Bahuguna not to align with the opposition BJP and return home with dignity.
Ms Joshi is believed to have already met BJP president Amit Shah and other senior leaders to discuss modalities of her switch to the saffron fold. She is currently the MLA from Lucknow Cant.
Rita Bahuguna Joshi may not have much of mass appeal but given that she is well versed with the Congress’ strategy and was joining the BJP is undoubtedly a setback for the Sonia Gandhi-led party.
Rita is the daughter of former Congress leader and UP CM Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna. She joined politics when she was nominated by SP as its mayor candidate from Allahabad. It was after she won that election that she quit the SP and joined the Congress.
