Happy That SP’s Ideology Is Expanding: Akhilesh Yadav’s Cheeky Response As Aparna Yadav Joins BJP

Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday. Akhilesh Yadav said "I will congratulate her and I am happy that Samajwadi Party's ideology is expanding."

Uttar Pradesh Election 2022: Moments after, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav gave a cheeky response on his family member joining the saffron party. “First of all I would like to congratulate and extend best wishes. I am also happy that our socialist ideology is expanding. I hope that our ideology will reach there and work to save the constitution and democracy,” the SP president told reporters in his first response on Aparna Yadav joining the BJP.

The Samajwadi Party chief added that Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) had tried to convince her. “Netaji tried his best to counsel her. Tickets are dependent on our internal surveys, on a lot of things,” Yadav said, implying that she had left because she was denied a seat to contest the polls.

#WATCH | Firstly, I will congratulate her and I am happy that Samajwadi Party's ideology is expanding…Netaji (former UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav) tried to convince her: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav after Aparna Yadav joined BJP pic.twitter.com/aA294cMeVJ

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) January 19, 2022

Aparna Yadav is the wife of Akhilesh Yadav’s half-brother Prateek Yadav, the younger son of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.

She joined the BJP in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and its state chief Swatantra Dev Singh. Expressing her admiration for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said the nation’s interest has always been a priority for her and praised several schemes of the BJP government for cleanliness, woman empowerment and employment.

She had contested the 2017 Uttar Pradesh election as a Samajwadi Party candidate but had lost to Rita Bahuguna, who had crossed over from the Congress to the BJP.

“I am very thankful to BJP. The nation always comes first for me. I admire PM Modi’s work,” Aparna Yadav said after joining the BJP.

“I have always been very vocal about the policies and ideologies of PM Modi and BJP. Nationalism is a very important aspect of my life. I’ve always thought of nation before anything,” she added.