Till a few months back, Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi was stringent in her attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Now, as the elections to the Uttar Pradesh is round the corner, she switched camps to join the BJP, a party his brother and former Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna had joined some time back.
She started her innings in the saffron party with a sharp attack on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi accusing him of lacking leadership qualities and slamming him for his Khoon Ki Dalali remark on surgical strikes. An MLA in the Uttar Pradesh assembly, Bahuguna joined the BJP at the party headquarters in Delhi in the presence of party chief Amit Shah.
Congress was quick to call her an opportunist for her decision to leave party and attack Gandhi.
Daughter of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Hemawati Nandan Bahuguna, her entry into the BJP is likely to help the saffron party in sending a message to the electorally important Brahmins in the state.
Bahuguna’s scathing attack on Rahul became the highlight of her induction ceremony. “I felt sad over Rahul Gandhi’s Khoon Ki Dalali remarks questioning the surgical strikes. When the whole world had accepted that we carried out surgical strikes, I didn’t like it when Congress and other parties questioned it. I had even tweeted about it,” She said in the press conference. She also expressed faith in the leadership of Modi and Shah.
She went on to question Rahul’s leadership qualities saying he did not evoke confidence among people or his partymen. “Sonia Gandhi was different. She used to listen to us, though she might do whatever she liked. But this does not happen under Rahul,” She added.
Going a step ahead, she even hit out at Congress’ campaign manager in Uttar Pradesh Prashant Kishore saying he was controlling the Congress leaders in the state. “He takes decisions on our programmes. How can he do so to leaders like us. Congress has outsourced the party to him,” Bahuguna charged.
Amit Shah, though present during the induction, did not speak to the media on it.
Congress attacked Bahuguna calling her an opportunist. “Opportunist leaders do not stick at one place. Earlier, she was in Samajwadi Party, then Congres and now she is in the BJP. Tomorrow, she'll go somewhere else," senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said.
"This is absolute opportunism. She just made an excuse to leave. The reality is she couldn't have won the election. The contest is very tough," said Azad.
Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar rubbed it in. He said Bahuguna did what some other members of her party had done in the past, an apparent reference to her father who had left Congress to join Lok Dal. Her brother was instrumental in bringing down Congress government in Uttarakhand before joining the BJP.
