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If Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claims a major “victory” in inducting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh half-brother Daljeet Singh Kohli to the party fold, Congress has former Prime Minister and Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s niece Karuna Shukla to counter.
Shukla, a BJP stalwart who also held the coveted post of BJP Mahila Morcha National President, quit the party that her uncle Vajpayee had founded and joined the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. She contested the Lok Sabha polls from Bilaspur constituency from Congress ticket.
Now, she is on a hectic campaign trial in Lucknow---the constituency her uncle represented for long. But this time, the things are other way for Karuna Shukla. Earlier, she had been campaigning in Lucknow for BJP candidate. Now, she is seeking votes for Rita Bahuguna who is taking on BJP President Rajnath Singh.
Shukla is the daughter of Vajpayee’s late brother Suda, who ran a book-publishing firm in Gwalior. The former Prime Minister is the youngest of eight siblings. She had settled in Raipur.
Besides Karuna, two nephews of Vajpayee are in active politics. While Anoop Mishra has been a BJP MLA and Minister in the Madhya Pradesh; Deepak Vajpayee is a BJP official in Gwalior.
The open allegation against BJP leaders was in fact scoring points for the Congress. She had alleged that she was "mentally tortured" by the party in Chhattisgarh and the Atal-Advani era had come to an end in BJP that forced her to quit the party.
The issue of Atal-Advani era coming to an end had been the focus of Shukla’s campaign in Lucknow against BJP candidate Rajnath Singh. The leaders close to Shukla here told Business Standard that she could campaign in Lucknow for another couple of days in favour of Congress candidate.
In Lucknow, Vajpayee was not recognized because of BJP. And now his niece working against the BJP in the same constituency had baffled the managers handling party President’s election in Lucknow.
They had chalked out a strategy. The top leaders of Chhattisgarh including Chief Minister Raman Singh had been asked to campaign in Lucknow. Senior Minister Brijmohan Agrawal had been asked to camp in Lucknow as part of the strategy.
