Rita Bahuguna Joshi joins BJP: Is the Congress party combusting from within ahead of UP elections?

The first symptom of the switch was seen after the surgical strikes on September 29, when Rita Bahuguna decided to end her twitter hiatus and come out in praise of the government.

Updated: October 20, 2016 7:37 PM IST

By Srividhya Iyer

Rita Bahuguna Joshi joins BJP: Is the Congress party combusting from within ahead of UP elections?

New Delhi, October 20: As the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election of 2017 is nearing, the Congress party and its leaders seem to be stumbling across major roadblocks. In an unexpected development today, former Uttar Pradesh Congress chief, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, has decided to leave the Congress party and join the BJP. This move is a clear indication of the fact that the Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is unable to hold his army together.

Rita Bahuguna Joshi is a veteran Congress leader and out of her 27-year long political career, she has belonged to the Congress for more than 25 years. The resignation of Joshi from the party is also an indication of the crumbling walls of the inner system of the Congress party.

The first symptom of the switch was seen after the surgical strikes on September 29 when Rita Bahuguna decided to end her twitter hiatus and come out in praise of the government. She even condemned Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Khoon ki dalali’ remark. It seems Gandhi’s remarks provided her with the perfect opportunity to wash her hands of the Congress party. (ALSO READ: Punjab Assembly elections 2017: Amarinder Singh denies Congress offered deputy chief minister’s post to Navjot Singh Sidhu)

Speaking at a press conference today with BJP President Amit Shah, Joshi said, “I resigned from Congress today and joined BJP. It wasn’t easy for me. Whatever the result of the surgical strikes may have been, the Modi government decided to take full responsibility. Congress leaders and the media started questioning the surgical strikes. I was deeply hurt. I even expressed my displeasure on Twitter. It was not called for. It inspired me to take this decision. This fight and struggle is very important. Our Army needs the support of the government and the nation.”

She further added, “Prashant Kishor can be a poll manager but not the poll director. Unfortunately, everything was given in his hands. I felt that Congress has lost the support of the people. People of Uttar Pradesh do not accept the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. Even strong leaders of the Pradesh cannot speak their views under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.”

Responding to the developments, Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar said, “The party won’t be affected by this. No one understood our solidarity with the soldiers when the government was playing with the blood of the troops. There was not a flutter in the ground when news of this sort was already coming out.” Babbar further added, “It’s a fourth or fifth change in Rita Bahuguna’s family. I don’t want to talk about Rita Bahuguna because she is a woman and not a part of our party. It was told to us that Rita Bahuguna is sick. She should be prudent enough to understand that there will be no change from her shift.” (ALSO READ: RSS men should guard borders instead of jawans: Congress leader)

Joshi, however, did not pay much attention to comments from the Congress party and instead said “It is important to free Uttar Pradesh from communalism. I will do everything in my power to get BJP a majority in the Uttar Pradesh elections.” Rita Bahuguna Joshi is the daughter of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna and the sister of former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahugana Joshi, who has also recently joined the BJP . Rita who is Congress veteran  headed the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh from 2007-12.

What is most noticeable and hardly need to be highlighted, is the fact that Joshi also has followed other leaders who have left the Congress party and has attributed  the main reason for her switch to Rahul Gandhi’s poor leadership. The Congress and its allies now control seven states – six of them small ones – covering just 15.5 percent of India’s population. The BJP and its allies rule 13 states with a population share of 43 per cent. These statistics indicate that it is high time that the Congress party  under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi devotes some serious time on introspection.

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