New Delhi: Before Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the Congress may suffer a big jolt as its veteran leader in the state, Rita Bahugana Joshi may abandon the party and join Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said reports.

She is a MLA from Lucknow Cantt constituency of the state and was the president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee from 2007 to 2012. Daughter of Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, a former Chief Minister of the UP, she is a well know face in the state for the party.

In the month of May too, there was speculation of Ms Joshi joining Samajwadi Party. She had met chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow which created the speculation though the Congress MLA from Lucknow cantonment vehemently denied any such move in her written statement.

It may be recalled that Congress Working Committee (CWC) member and ex-Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma joined the Samajwadi Party in May and even grabbed a Rajya Sabha seat.

BACKGROUND:

  • Both Beni Prasad Verma and Ms Joshi are old ruling Samajwadi Party leaders.

  • Ms Joshi was also the Samajwadi Party Mayor of Allahabad (1995-2000). She also contested the Sultanpur parliament polls on the ticket of SP.

  • Rita Bahugana Joshi has twice contested, unsuccessfully, in elections to the Lok Sabha, which is the lower house of the Indian Parliament.

  • In the 2012 state elections, she was elected a Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Lucknow Cantonment.

  • She contested in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 from Lucknow but lost.