In yet another major setback to Congress, the party’s candidate from Tarabganj assembly constituency in Gonda, Savita Pandey, joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday.
Pandey’s move especially jolted Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s decision to field maximum women in the ongoing assembly elections.
The BJP state unit said in a statement on Monday that Pandey along with her supporters joined the ruling party at the party headquarters in Gonda in the presence of former UP BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpai.
After switching over, Pandey said that she joined the BJP on being influenced by the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
"In the last five years, every woman in the state has realised that they are safe only in the BJP regime," she said.
Leaders of Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and other Congress office-bearers also joined the BJP.
Earlier, ‘Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon’ poster girl Priyanka Maurya had left the Congress to join BJP after she was denied a ticket to contest from Sarojininagar assembly seat in Lucknow.
Meanwhile on Monday, the Congress released the names of 28 candidates for Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, out of which 11 are women.
The party fielded Ashish Shukla from Amethi against Sanjay Singh of the BJP. The party changed its candidate from Gaura, replacing Satendra Dubey with former MLA, Ram Pratap Singh and in Mankapur seat, Santosh Kumari was given ticket in place of Kamla Sisodia.
In Padrauna, where the party witnessed the high profile exit of former Union minister RPN Singh just ahead of polls, the Congress fielded Mohd Jahriddin.
Women candidates given tickets include Reena Devi Bind from Handia, Madhvi Rai from Meja, Rinki Patel from Karchhana, Nishat Fatima from Katehri, Poonam Azad from Bansgaon, Kiran Bharti from Balha, Sonia Shukla from Chillupar and Priyanka Yadav from Ghosi. The women candidates have been chosen from diverse backgrounds.
While releasing the first list of candidates, Priyanka had said, "We want to give a chance to the people who have been fighting for their rights, so the real people get the chance to fight for their cause. Political rights need to be given to women. The party has tried to change the political narrative of the state and wants that there should be discussion on employment, health, law and order and other women related issues.”