In a major setback to Samajwadi Party, former SP leader Shalini Yadav, who contested for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat in 2019, against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) later on Monday.
"Diligent workers were not being heard (in Samajwadi Party). This was one of the reasons behind their defeat in the (Uttar Pradesh assembly) elections," Shalini told PTI after her joining.
According to media reports, several leaders from other parties were scheduled to join the BJP today at the party headquarters in Uttar Pradesh in the presence of state BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary.
Shalini Yadav is the daughter-in-law of late Shyamlal Yadav, former Congress MP from Varanasi and deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha. She joined the Samajwadi Party in 2019.
Shalini had also unsuccessfully run for the Mayoral poll of Varanasi Municipal Corporation in 2017 from the Congress. She is an alumnus of the Benaras Hindu University.
In her first parliamentary election, Shalini contested for the Varanasi seat against PM Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and was defeated by a margin of over 4.75 lakh votes.
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