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In a jolt to the Congress, senior leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi resigned from that party and her membership of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Thursday to join the BJP in the presence of party president Amit Shah.

Ms Joshi’s brother, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna is already in the BJP and was made a part of the party’s executive in the Allahabad meet of the party. While speculation was rife last week that Ms Joshi would be joining the BJP, it was a last minute announcement on Thursday that confirmed the rumours.

Ms Joshi told reporters in New Delhi that she was "hurt when the Indian National Congress questioned the surgical strikes by the Army across the Line of Control" and that it was not seemly for a party like the Congress to have done so. "I publicly expressed my displeasure on my Twitter account as well."

She said she was also hurt by the importance accorded to poll strategist Prashant Kishore in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh and Punjab Assembly polls. "A poll manager cannot replace a leader," she said and added that not just herself, "several senior party leaders were also upset that feedback from grass root leaders was being ignored."

"That the Congress should reach a stage where its election strategy is being sub-contracted to such managers says a lot of the state of the leadership," she said.

Ms Joshi is rumoured to have been upset with former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit being projected as the Congress’ chief ministerial and Brahmin face in Uttar Pradesh. Ms Joshi, besides being a Brahmin, is also the daughter of former Chief Minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna.

Ms Joshi squarely blamed the leadership of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for ignoring senior party leaders but had a word of praise for Congress president Sonia Gandhi for ’’being more democratic in her functioning’’. "Mrs Gandhi, whether she took your point or not, at least heard you out," Ms. Joshi said.

For the development of Uttar Pradesh, she said, it was important to remove both the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. "Only the BJP can do that," she added.