Dr. Rita Bahuguna Joshi, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Lok Sabha MP from Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, proposed resigning as a Member of Parliament on Tuesday if the party agrees to nominate her son Mayank in the upcoming state assembly elections.
Her son Mayank Joshi, she says, has been working since 2009 and has asked for a ticket from Lucknow Cantt. She further stated that if the party decides to only issue one ticket per family, she will resign from her current Lok Sabha seat to campaign for Mayank.
She added that she has conveyed her request to the party’s national president, JP Nadda. “I will always continue working for the BJP anyway. The party can choose to accept or reject my proposal. I had already declared that I won’t contest elections, many years ago,” Joshi further added according to ANI.
He (son Mayank Joshi) has been working since 2009 & has applied for it (a ticket from Lucknow Cantt), rightfully. But if the party has decided to give ticket to only 1 person per family, I will resign from my present LS seat if Mayank gets a ticket: BJP LS MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi pic.twitter.com/QCu3zN7p8P
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) January 18, 2022
The Lucknow Cantt seat, one of Uttar Pradesh’s 403 assembly seats, is located in the state’s capital city of Lucknow. Joshi has been a two-time MLA from the same seat, once on congress nomination in 2012 and then on BJPs nomination in 2017.
Joshi has reportedly approached top BJP officials, including Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP State President JP Nadda, for a ticket for her son.
Dr. Joshi previously served as a cabinet minister in the Uttar Pradesh government. In 2019, the BJP nominated her for the Allahabad parliamentary seat. She resigned as state minister after winning the general election. Dr. Joshi, an Allahabad Central University professor, was also a mayor. She afterwards joined the BJP.
For the approaching elections, all political parties are negotiating for the distribution of tickets. Elections in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases, commencing on February 7 and ending on March 7, with the ballots being counted on March 10.
