UP Elections: Major embarrassment for Congress as third 'Ladki Hoon' poster girl joins BJP

In yet another major setback for the Congress party ahead of the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh elections, another poster girl of the Priyanka Gandhi-led 'Ladki hoon Lad Sakti hoon' campaign, Pallavi Singh, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday. Earlier, two more prominent faces of the campaign, Priyanka Maurya and Vandana Singh had also embraced the membership of the saffron party.

'Women workers not respected within Congress': Poster girl Pallavi Singh

Speaking to the media, Pallavi Singh said, "The party (Congress) talks about giving rights to women, but the women within the party are not respected. How are they supposed to protect other women if they cannot do anything about the women within the political party. This a major reason why I left the Congress."

Earlier this month, Vandana Singh, another poster girl of the campaign, had exited the party on the account of 'ignorance' amongst the party workers. It is pertinent to note that Singh was earlier serving as the Vice President of UP Central of Mahila Congress and the disassociation can be marked as a major jolt to the party ahead of the forthcoming polls. Another poster personality, Priyanka Maurya had resigned from the grand-old party despite being portrayed as one of the prominent figures for the election campaign in Uttar Pradesh. Maurya had left Congress to join the BJP. 

In an exclusive conversation with Republic TV on January 14, poster girl Maurya had said, "I have been betrayed. We were told that there will be screening, observation and survey to select candidates for polls. But even after completing all tasks, I was not given the ticket. People kept me telling me that this ticket (170 Sarojini Nagar) is reserved for Rudra Daman Singh. I knew it, but I was still fighting for it. I was asked to bring girls for marathons, people in addresses and meetings, induct workers to Congress. I did a lot of work for it."

The ongoing Uttar Pradesh elections are being held in seven phases where the first one concluded on February 10. The next six phases are scheduled on February 14, February 20, February 23, February 27, March 3, and March 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.