New Delhi: Aparna Yadav, the sister-in-law of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, Wednesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The move came in a jolt to the SP days after the party clinched a number of leaders from the BJP, ahead of the crucial Uttar Pradesh elections.
Aparna is married to Prateek, Akhilesh’s step-brother. Prateek is the son of Sadhna Yadav, the second wife of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. She had contested the 2017 assembly elections on an SP ticket, but had lost to BJP’s Rita Bahuguna Joshi from Lucknow Cantt.
On Wednesday, UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya welcomed Aparna into the party fold at the party’s headquarters in New Delhi. He referred to her as the “putrvadhu” of Mulayam Singh Yadav and termed Akhilesh Yadav as a “failed CM and a failed family man”.
“I feel happy to say that despite being the daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav, she has always spoken in favour of the BJP parivar (family). I always found Aparna Yadav’s thinking aligned to the BJP’s,” Maurya said during the press meet.
The daughter of former journalist Arvind Singh Bisht, Aparna has roots in Uttarakhand, just like the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
While joining the party, Aparna thanked “respected Modi and Yogi” in her short speech and said she was always influenced by the BJP. She also lauded schemes including Swachh Bharat, schemes related to women empowerment and employment creation among others.
“I have always been influenced by PM Modi ji. The nation is always first for me. I have now come forward to work for the nation,” Aparna said. “I will contest from wherever the party decides. It is important for me that the BJP emerge victorious,” she said.
After the press meet, she met BJP chief J.P. Nadda and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
BJP leaders present at the event, including UP unit chief Swatantra Singh Singh and BJP MP Anil Baluni, referred to Aparna as Mulayam Singh Yadav’s “bahu” and “putravadhu”.
The UP BJP chief said that during the SP rule, hooliganism was rampant and “no daughter felt safe”. “Aparna felt from the beginning that there is good governance under Yogi ji’s rule,” said Singh.
While Aparna is seeking a ticket from Lucknow Cantt, the senior BJP leadership has maintained that there was no pre-condition for her joining, said sources.
BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi is also seeking a ticket for her son from Lucknow Cantt and has even offered to resign if the party, following a ‘one family, one ticket’ rule, would field her son.
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Aparna and her history with BJP
Aparna Yadav, who is a postgraduate in international relations and politics from Manchester University and a trained singer in classical and semi-classical music, has often praised the initiatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, causing much unease to her father-in-law and the party.
Not only this, she had raised many eyebrows when she clicked a selfie with PM Modi at a family function in Lucknow in 2016. She had then referred to him as “everyone’s PM”.
In 2017, after the spectacular performance of the BJP in the assembly elections, she courted controversy when she praised Yogi Adityanath and even suggested that Akhilesh Yadav should hand over the SP leadership back to Mulayam Singh Yadav. Commenting on CM Yogi Adityanath, she had said: “His government is doing good work”.
She also runs an organisation called ‘bAware’, which works on issues related to women and also runs a cow shelter in Lucknow. She had also donated Rs 11 lakh for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya during the donation drive.
An SP leader said the rumours had persisted that Aparna was set to join the BJP, but she had been advised by senior SP leaders to wait for her turn to fight elections.
“The rumours have been there for quite some time. She was advised by Shivpal Yadav to stay in SP and do more work for the party. She was also told to work for the party and not expect tickets at this juncture,” the SP leader said on condition of anonymity.
This report has been updated to correct the fact that Prateek is Akhilesh Yadav’s step-brother.
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