Senior Uttar Pradesh Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday, putting an end to rumours about her switching sides. After joining the BJP in the presence of national party president Amit Shah, she said she had been unhappy with the Congress and other Opposition parties questioning the veracity of the Indian Army's surgical strikes.

Joshi said, "'Khoon ki dalali' jaise shabd ka upyog kiya gaya, usse main kafi dukhi ho gayi [To hear someone say [Narendra Modi] was trying to gain from the blood shed by soldiers upset me]." The legislator was referring to the remarks made by Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi made during a campaign on October 6.

Moreover, the Lucknow Cantonment MLA was reportedly unhappy with the Congress' move to project Sheila Dikshit as the chief ministerial candidate for the poll-bound state. Joshi believed that she would make a better Brahmin chief ministerial face than Dikshit, according to Hindustan Times. The 67-year-old daughter of former Congress UP chief Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna also felt abandoned after Raj Babbar was given the position over her.

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Congress' UP chief Raj Babbar called Bahuguna a "betrayer", saying her family had a history of slighting the party. He also said that Amit Shah would not gain anything in the state from his "army of traitors".

In May, Joshi's brother and former Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna had moved to the BJP. The resignations of the two siblings are likely to give the ruling party at the Centre a shot in the arm as the party tries to consolidate Brahmin votes. Uttar Pradesh will go to polls early next year.