Ahead of UP last phase poll, BJP MP Rita Bahuguna’s son joins SP

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 5

Ahead of the final phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh on Monday, BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s son Mayank Joshi on Saturday joined the Samajwadi Party.

SP national president Akhilesh Yadav made the announcement from the stage of a rally he addressed in Azamgarh on Saturday.

Welcoming Mayank Joshi, Yadav said, “The joining of Mayank Joshi will raise the morale of party workers and strengthen SP.”

Mayank had met Akhilesh Yadav recently, triggering talks of his imminent joining.

Earlier, Rita Bahuguna Joshi had sought a ticket for her son from Lucknow Cantonment in the ongoing UP elections and even offered to quit her parliamentary seat of Allahabad to this end.

When the BJP denied her son a nomination, Rita Bahuguna “deferred” to the party’s decision.

Bahuguna had earlier emerged a giant killer in 2017 UP elections by defeating Aparna Yadav, the daughter-in-law of SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav by a margin of over 33,000 votes from Lucknow Cantt.

She later went on to defeat her nearest rival Rajendra Singh of SP from Allahabad Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 General Elections—a seat represented in the past by two prime ministers late Lal Bahadur Shastri and VP Singh and actor Amitabh Bachchan.