Battle for UP: Another poster girl of Cong joins BJP

Lucknow, Feb 10 (IANS) In yet another setback to the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, its poster girl for the 'Ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon' campaign, Vandana Singh, has joined the BJP.

Vandana said that she left Congress due to 'negligible involvement of the high command' in matters important to the upcoming polls.

"The party is giving opportunities to only those who have recently joined. I have worked for the Congress for six years. I was the vice president of the women's wing. But we do not get a chance to talk to Priyanka Gandhi. We cannot speak for ourselves in the party," said Vandana.

Another poster girls of Congress's campaign, Priyanka Maurya, had earlier joined the BJP.

Priyanka Maurya had alleged that the Congress's distribution of tickets ahead of the Assembly election was rigged.

"They (Congress) used my face, my name and my 10 lakh social media followers for the campaign. But when it came to the ticket for the upcoming election, it was given to someone else. This is injustice. It is all pre-decided," Priyanka Maurya had stated.

She had also alleged that she did not get the ticket "because I am an OBC girl and could not bribe Priyanka Gandhi's secretary Sandeep Singh."

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had earlier announced in Lucknow that the party would give 40 per cent of tickets to the women candidates (which means 160 candidates) in the Uttar Pradesh polls.