A day after the BJP's firebrand Kundanika Sharma defected to Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party and was named the Agra North assembly candidate, the BJP engineered the defection of Hemlata Divakar, the Samajwadi candidate from Agra Rural.
Divakar was formally welcomed into the party by Minister of State for Human Resource Development Ram Shankar Katheria, the Lok Sabha member from Agra.
Both Sharma and Divakar are expected to contest the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh next year.