New Delhi: Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joined Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday, January 19.
There had been pitched speculation on such a move for a few days.
She joined the party in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and and BJP state chief Swatantra Dev Singh.
She is married to Prateek Yadav, son of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s second wife while Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav is his son from his first marriage.
Akhilesh Yadav has been working to rally the party’s base in the run up to the state assembly polls. This is likely to be the first time that Akhilesh contests an assembly seat.
There have been key moves by BJP leaders of Other Backward Classes communities to the Samajwadi Party in the recent past, including that of minister Swami Prasad Maurya.
Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party president and former Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Om Prakash Rajbhar has told The Wire that more leaders from BJP will quit the party ahead of the elections.
Aparna Yadav said she has always been impressed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and added that the nation’s interest has always been her priority.
The BJP may field her in the polls, PTI reported sources as having said.
Aparna Yadav had contested the 2017 assembly polls on the Samajwadi Party ticket from Lucknow Cantonment but had lost to BJP’s Rita Bahuguna Joshi, now a Lok Sabha member.
Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases beginning from February 10.
(With PTI inputs)
