Major setback for Congress in UP: Rita Bahuguna Joshi joins BJP

Joshi is said to be upset with her party projecting Sheila Dikshit as its CM face for the upcoming UP polls

In a major setback for Congress, senior Uttar Pradesh leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi, on Thursday, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. 

Citing the decision as difficult. she said it was taken for the benefit of the nation. She also criticised the Congress for questioning the Indian-army led September 29 surgical strikes.

She also resigned as the member of legislative assembly. Criticising the Congress party, she said further that the party has lost ground and does not provide an alternative in UP. Casting fresh doubts on Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's leadership qualities, she said that Gandhi was not being able to continue the political legacy of her mother and party president Sonia Gandhi.

Joshi, the Congress' Brahmin face and daughter of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, is said to have fallen out with her former party after it decided to project former Delhi Chief Minister (CM) Sheila Dikshit as its CM candidate in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections.

Joshi had led the Congress party in the 2012 assembly polls in UP. Congress, after its success in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections in UP, where it had surprised many by winning 21 of the 80 seats, performed poorly in the 2012 assembly elections. Out of the total 403 seats, the party had managed to secure only 28 parliamnetary seats  despite extensive campaigning by Rahul Gandhi.

Earlier this year, Vijay Bahuguna, who is Joshi’s brother, had split the Congress in Uttarakhand to lead his splinter group of nine legislators out of the party. It had led to the imposition of the President’s Rule in the state. Vijay Bahuguna later joined the BJP.

Vijay Bahuguna was elected Uttarakhand chief minister after Congress won the assembly polls in 2012, but was upset after he was asked to quit and the central leadership handed the reins to Harish Rawat. Along with UP, assembly polls are also due in Uttarakhand.

Joshi was a legislator from the Lucknow Cantt assembly seat, and would have faced a difficult electoral contest with Samajwadi Party set to field party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s younger daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav there.

It remains to be seen if Joshi, walking out of the Congress, would dent the party’s outreach to the Brahmins of Uttar Pradesh. Brahmins in UP comprise over 10 per cent of the electorate. The Congress strategy is to wean away some of BJP’s upper caste support base in the state by projecting Dikshit, daughter-in-law of another poltical stalwart Umashankar Dikshit.

Joshi had started her political career as a member of the Samajwadi Party, but had later joined the Congress. In the last couple of months, several Bahujan Samaj Party leaders have joined the BJP, including its Brahmin leader Brijesh Pathak.