Annu Tandon, the former Unnao MP, joined the Samajwadi Party on Monday, a few days after tendering her resignation from the Congress.
Tandon was accompanied by more than 140 Congress office bearers and scores of other party members at her joining, which took place in the SP state headquarters on Monday.
Welcoming her to the party, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “Whenever I would cross Unnao, poor people would talk about her work at the ground level. She is someone who has always worked for women and the poor, no matter whether or not she held elected office. Political circumstances have changed, and her coming will strengthen the party.”
Addressing the media, Tandon said that she had long admired the working style of Akhilesh Yadav. “For the last one to one-and-half years, I was not getting the opportunity to work. I knew that if we would not move forward, it is our people who would suffer most. I was emotionally attached to the party (Congress) but have now decided to join the SP. It shall be our endeavour to make Akhilesh ji the next chief minister of the state,” Tandon said.
Tandon, who had resigned on October 29, had in a note to the media spoken about her close association with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. She told THE WEEK, “My ideology remains the same—it is socialist, neither leftist nor rightist. I remain committed to my people.”
The state Congress chief, Ajay Kumar Lallu, had said that Tandon had been removed from the party before her resignation, yet had not been able to specify why this news had not been made public.
There has been speculation that Tandon, like many other senior leaders, had been sidelined since Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took over charge of the state. A senior Congress leader said that while Priyanka was revamping the party's state organisation, her manner of doing so was unacceptable to the senior leaders. It was her approach that had led newcomers into the party to speak of veterans like Tandon as “spent cartridges”.
Yet, as Tandon said in her address to the media, “I have not worked for long with Priyanka ji so cannot comment on her”.
Tandon said that she had joined SP to ensure that communal forces were defeated. “The next big elections are the 2022 Vidhan Sabha polls and that is not an election I will fight,” she said to a query about whether her entry into the party was contingent upon getting an election ticket.