Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joins BJP

PTI, Jan 19, 2022, 10:58 AM IST

 New Delhi: Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joined the BJP on Wednesday.

She joined the party in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and and its state chief Swatantra Dev Singh.

Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav present at BJP headquarters pic.twitter.com/7sZ0Vaz7hG

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She is married to Prateek Yadav, son of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s second wife while SP president Akhilesh Yadav is his son from the first marriage. Aparna Yadav said she has always been impressed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and added that the nation’s interest has always been her priority.

There had been much speculation about her joining the BJP, and the development highlights the rift in the SP’s ruling family at a time when Akhilesh Yadav has been working to rally the party’s base in the run up to the state assembly polls.

The BJP may field her in the polls, sources said. Aparna Yadav had contested the 2017 assembly polls on the Samajwadi Party ticket from Lucknow Cantt but had lost to BJP’s Rita Bahuguna Joshi, now a Lok Sabha member. Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases beginning from February 10.

Aparna, wife of Prateek Yadav, Mulayam Singh’s son from his second marriage had contested the 2017 polls from Lucknow Cantt. She had lost against BJP’s Rita Bahuguna Joshi at that time.