TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ In a jolt to Congress in poll- bound Uttar Pradesh, senior party leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi today joined BJP and attacked Rahul Gandhi over the way he was running the party and his reaction to the army’s surgical strikes.
67-year-old Joshi, daughter of late Congress veteran Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, over whom there has been speculation of deserting Congress, joined BJP in the presence of party president Amit Shah at the party headquaters here.
A former UPCC president who resigned as a Congress MLA today, Joshi said there is no alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP. Joshi, who was said to be unhappy with the Congress leadership over projection of Sheila Dikshit as its chief ministerial face in Uttar Pradesh, rued the present state of affairs in the party, alleging that it is in such a bad shape that it has contracted out its working to strategist Prashant Kishore.
Slamming Rahul for his ‘dalali’ barb at Modi over the surgical strikes, Joshi said she has been disheartened by the events which happened in the last few days. “India is fighting terrorism and the Modi government has given the army a free hand. Besides valour of the army, the government’s strong leadership was also behind the surgical strikes.