Major jolt for Congress as senior leader joins the BJP

Senior Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi yesterday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party here in the presence of party chief Amit Shah. She also gave up her membership of the Uttar Pradesh assembly.She accused Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi of “not listening” to party cadres.Joshi’s decision to join the BJP, just months ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, is widely seen as a big jolt to the Congress, with which she was associated for 24 years.“Soniaji used to understand us. She might take any decision but used to listen to us. But even that is not possible under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi,” Joshi told reporters after joining the BJP.In a fierce attack on Rahul Gandhi, the former Uttar Pardesh Congress chief said: “His leadership is not acceptable not just to Uttar Pradesh but to the entire nation. Even senior leaders of the state are angry.“The way he should have given leadership to a national party, he failed to do it seriously. His leadership is not acceptable to the people.”Joshi said it was not an easy decision for her to quit the Congress but she took it in the interest of the country.She hailed the army’s ‘surgical strikes’ across the Line of Control, and said Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Congress demand for proof made her angry.“It was a big accomplishment of the government and of the army. I was also happy when I came to know about the surgical strikes,” she said, adding what made her angry was when proof of the strikes were sought and words like “khoon ki dalali” were used.The Congress reacted with predictable disdain to Joshi’s desertion.Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar said her defection would make no difference to the party in the state just as her brother’s leaving the Congress in Uttarakhand had no impact.Joshi also took on Congress poll manager in Uttar Pradesh Prashant Kishor, saying “a poll manager can never be a poll director.”“After the 2014 Lok Sabha debacle, the way Congress should have proceeded, it didn’t.”Joshi until recently was known as an ardent supporter of Rahul Gandhi. But yesterday, she accused the Congress of handing over the whole election management to Kishor.“Not only the direction of the election but the whole leadership was handed over to him. The party has lost its credibility... What can be more unfortunate than a party being given out on contract? Even powerful leaders were not allowed to speak freely,” she said.Joshi also took on Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Samajwadi Party and the main opposition Bahujan Samaj Party.“Both the SP and BSP have looted the state. There is mafia raj in Uttar Pradesh. UP needs to be freed from both these parties.”Joshi is the daughter of late Uttar Pradesh chief minister Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna and a sister of former Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, who joined the BJP some time back.Sources said Joshi was upset with the party ever since the Congress named former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit as the chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh and making Raj Babbar, a former Bollywood actor, the state’s party chief.Joshi is likely to be the BJP candidate from Lucknow Cantonment against SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s younger daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav.