BSP shrugs off Rita Bahuguna 's jump; says BJP will still face defeat in UP polls

New Delhi: Taking a strong exception to former Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Friday said the saffron party that is known for communal disharmony would still face defeat in the upcoming assembly elections.

"The people come and go and parties have independent process. There is no importance of a person in a political and social struggle. Rita Ji knows best why she joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. But the identity of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh is of communal disharmony,"BSP leader Sudheendra Bhadauria told ANI.

Bhadauria said the BJP would face the same results as it witnessed in Bihar and Delhi.

"The result would be same as it happened in Bihar with (Jitan Ram) Manjhi, Krishna Tirath and Kiran Bedi in Delhi. The result was zero. In the same way, the result of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh would be zero," he added.

In what came as a major setback to the Congress in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Joshi yesterday formally joined the BJP in the presence of party president Amit Shah.

Joshi told the media that she was "hurt when the Indian National Congress questioned the surgical strikes by the Army along the Line of Control" and that it was unseemly for a party like the Congress to have done so.

The former Uttar Pradesh Congress chief also said that she was hurt by the importance accorded to election strategist Prashant Kishor.