October 20, 2016: In poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, it was a jolt to Congress when Rita Bahuguna Joshi, the leader of the senior party, joined BJP. Following her joining, Rahul Gandhi was attacked by Joshi over his methods of running the party and his response to the Surgical Strikes by the army.
67-year-old Joshi is the daughter of the renowned Congress veteran late Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna who has been highly speculated over deserting the Congress party. Today, in the presence of the president of the BJP party Amit Shah, Joshi joined the party at the headquarters in New Delhi.
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There can be no alternative to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP party- a former president of UPCC, resigning today from the power of a Congress MLA, was reported as saying.
Joshi was said to be not happy regarding the leadership of Congress over the projection of Sheila Dikshit as the face of its chief minister in UP. She strongly repented the present conditions of the party affairs and has alleged that the extremely poor shape of the party has led it to hand over the working contractually to Prashant Kishore, the strategist.
Joshi stated that she has been utterly disheartened by recent events and slammed Rahul for his disparaging remarks of "Dalali" at Modi, regarding the Surgical Strikes.
Rahul Gandhi. Wikimedia
"Along with the nation, I too was happy. The whole world accepted India's arguments behind the strikes. Congress, however, behaved like a small party and went on to question it. The whole nation was upset with a phrase like 'khoon like dalali'," she said attacking Gandhi.
Joshi claimed that his barb presented Pakistan with an opportunity to question the Surgical Strikes. Joshi stated that out of her political career of 27 years, 24 years had been spent in Congress and only 10 months in the Samajwadi Party. She added, "The decision to quit Congress was not easy. However, I took it in the interest of the nation and the state (UP)."
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Joining of Joshi in the party will supposedly boost up the efforts of BJP to combine the Brahmin voters into a single unit as it looks forward to undergo a colossal transfiguration and rise to power in the state after a huge time of 15 years.
– prepared by Antara Kumar with PTI inputs. Twitter: @ElaanaC