New Delhi: Months ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, senior Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi on Thursday joined the BJP here in the presence of party chief Amit Shah.
Joshi, who had been with the Congress for 24 years, said it was not an easy decision for her but she had taken it in the interest of the country and Uttar Pradesh. The former President of the Congress state unit told the media she had resigned her membership of the state assembly. She represented Lucknow Cantt.
Hailing the Indian Army’s September 29 surgical strikes in Pakistani territory, she said it was a “big accomplishment of the government along with that of the army”. Joshi said she was hurt when the Congress party questioned the Army’s surgical strikes on terror camps across the Line of Control. “When the whole world has accepted that we carried out the surgical strikes, I didn’t like it when Congress and other parties questioned it,” she said. She also hit out at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for his ‘Khoon ki dalali” remark.
Joshi has been indifferent to the party activities in the past few days, mainly during the much-hyped Kisan Yatra of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Bahuguna’s brother and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna joined the BJP some time back.
