Uttar Pradesh/Nagpur: Former Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi joined the BJP today in the presence of BJP president Amit Shah. A huge loss to the Congress ahead of the state elections due early 2017.
Addressing a press conference, Rita Bahuguna Joshi said, “I have resigned from the Congress today and joined the BJP. It was a well thought out decision, which I made considering the good of the nation and what is beneficial to the country.
“I have served the Congress for 24 years. I was pained when after the surgical strikes the Congress questioned the strikes and Rahul Gandhi used the words, Khoon ki dalali. The Modi government made a big contribution to national security by conducting the surgical strikes. How could the Congress ask for proof of the strikes? The army should get our support not be asked questions.
She said there was nobody listen to grassroot workers in the Congress anymore. She lambasted Prashant Kishor, the Congress campaign manager in UP, and said he can be a poll manager, but not a poll director. “He would direct our every move. Where we should sit, walk, eat… ”
In a stinging criticism of Rahul Gandhi, she said, “There is nothing hidden about Rahul Gandhi’s leadership qualities. His leadership is not accepted in UP, forget about the nation. Sonia Gandhi at least used to listen to us, never mind whatever decisions she took later.”
“The SP, BSP is looting the nation and it is not possible for the Congress to stop it. I am a disciplined solider, I will do whatever is asked of me.
The Congress has so far denied that the 67-year-old Lucknow Cantonment legislator would follow her brother, former party leader and ex-Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, to the BJP.
