Didn’t join BJP for ticket, but to campaign for party: Aparna Yadav

Aparna Yadav, the younger daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav, who made headlines after joining the BJP in a surprising defection from the Samajwadi Party (SP), has said that she is not looking for an Assembly ticket and will stick to campaigning for the saffron party.

Aparna’s switchover to the BJP has been attributed to the reported denial of a ticket to her by the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP.

After she quit the party, Akhilesh in a veiled jibe at her had said, “I want to thank the BJP that they are giving tickets to those who even we were unable to give tickets to.”

Also read: Mulayam tried to dissuade daughter-in-law from joining BJP: Akhilesh

The 32-year-old Aparna, however, has rubbished the claims in an interview with a prominent news channel.

“People are telling me that I have come to BJP for ticket…My ticket was not being denied in the Samajwadi Party. I have come to the BJP for nationalism,” Aparna, the wife of Prateek Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s younger son, was quoted as saying.

Stating that she was inspired by the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Aparna said her aim behind joining the BJP is not fighting the elections but campaigning for it.

While Aparna’s exit is being seen a big setback for the SP ahead of the Assembly polls, several party insiders have told The Federal her absence would barely affect the party.

Aparna had contested as an SP candidate from the Lucknow Cantonment seat in the 2017 Assembly polls, only to be defeated by the BJP’s Rita Bahuguna Joshi by a margin of 30,000 votes. While Akhilesh stopped giving her any responsibilities after her defeat, Aparna had retaliated in her own way by praising the initiatives of the central and the Yogi-led state government, much to the discomfiture of the SP leadership.

Sources said, in the run up to the upcoming Assembly elections, she had lobbied for an SP ticket to run again for the Lucknow Cantonment seat by arguing that she spent the past five years working for the constituency’s development. Akhilesh, however, had refused to enlist her as a candidate as at least two internal surveys conducted by the SP showed that she has fair chances of losing again from the constituency and the party may win if it fields a Brahmin candidate instead.

Also read: Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joins BJP

The Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh will take place in seven phases starting February 10. The votes will be counted on March 10.