In a dramatic twist to the ongoing Uttar Pradesh elections, the main opposition party Samajwadi Party founder and former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav today joined BJP.
“I am very thankful to the BJP. The nation always comes first for me. I admire Prime Minister Modi’s work and the various schemes of the BJP,” Yadav said at the joining ceremony. “I now want to try and do better for the country,” she added.
There had been much speculation about her joining the BJP, and the development highlights the rift in the SP’s ruling family at a time when Akhilesh Yadav has been working to rally the party’s base in the run up to the state assembly polls.
According to the sources, Aparna Yadav has sought a ticket from the Lucknow Cantt assembly seat. She is married to Prateek Yadav, son of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s second wife, while SP president Akhilesh Yadav is his son from the first marriage.
Her joining the BJP comes as a major blow to the Samajwadi Party, which is in jubilation after joining of several OBC leaders from BJP, including three ministers and several MLAs. She joined BJP in the presence of deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and BJP State president Swatantra Dev Singh.
Aparna Yadav had contested the 2017 assembly polls on the Samajwadi Party ticket from Lucknow Cantt, but had lost to BJP’s Rita Bahuguna Joshi, now a Lok Sabha member. “Akhilesh Yadav is unsuccessful in his family, he was also unsuccessful as a chief minister,” Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya said.
“Despite being the bahu of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Aparna Yadav expressed her opinions on several issues from time to time. We used to feel she is part of the BJP family,” Keshav Maurya said.
