The Bharatiya Janata Party got a shot in its arm on Monday, when Samajwadi Party candidate from Agra (West) Hemlata Diwakar Kushwaha joined the party maintaining 'she was feeling suffocated' in the Samajwadi Party.
Kushwaha was given ticket by the SP recently but when she switched allegiance to the BJP in the presence of UP chief Keshav Prasad Mauryaon Monday morning, the Samajwadi Party hurriedly expelled her.
“There is no democracy in the SP. It is a party of one family and dedicated workers were feeling suffocated there,” Kushwaha said while taking the membership of hr new party.
She however refused that she has been promised a ticket from Agra (West). “I did not put any pre-condition before joining the BJP. It is up to the party leadership to decide about my candidature,” Kushwaha stressed.
State BJP spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak however said in lucknow that the former SP candidate had expressed her desire to join the BJP and the state chief accepted it. "The party will decide on fielding her for the Assembly polls at an appropriate time," Pathak said.
Kushwaha’s switching flanks and joining the BJP turned out to be a tit-for-tat for the SP as recently BJP corporator Kundanika Sharma had crossed over to the SP and was declared candidate from Agra (North) Assembly segment.
The daughter of eminent Hidni poet Gopal Das Neeraj, Kundanika Sharma was a corporator of the BJP since 1995 and later became a vice-president of the Braj region. She was recently booked for spewing a hate speech at a condolence meet after a VHP leader was murdered in Agra.