UP polls: Mayank Joshi, son of BJP MP Rita Bahuguna, joins Samajwadi Party before phase 7

Uttar Pradesh assembly election 2022: Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s media in-charge Abhishek Shukla said the Allahabad MP will remain in the BJP and has full faith in the national leadership

Lucknow: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha MP from Allahabad Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s son Mayank Joshi on Saturday joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) at an election meeting of party president Akhilesh Yadav in Azamgarh.

Mayank Joshi, son of BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi, joins Samajwadi Party in the presence of party chief Akhilesh Yadav during a public rally for the seventh phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, in Azamgarh on Saturday. (ANI)

The move came hours before the campaign for the seventh and final phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections concluded.

Speculation of Joshi joining the SP had been rife since February 22, when he had met the SP chief.

“Grandson of former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Late Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna ji, youth leader Shri Mayank Joshi took membership of Samajwadi Party in Azamgarh in the presence of national president Akhilesh Yadav. Welcome and thanks,” the principal opposition party in UP said on its Twitter handle.

Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s media in-charge Abhishek Shukla said the Allahabad MP will remain in the BJP and has full faith in the national leadership.

The BJP MP is presently in Tripura for a parliamentary committee meeting, where she came to know through the news media that her son Mayank has joined the SP, Shukla said in a statement.

Rita Bahuguna, who was the president of the state Congress committee and joined the BJP before the 2017 assembly polls, according to some media reports, was trying for a BJP ticket for Mayank from Lucknow’s Cantt assembly seat. However, the ruling party fielded law minister Brajesh Pathak.

Bahuguna won the Cantt assembly seat by defeating SP’s Aparna Yadav, SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law, who has now joined the BJP.