Rita Bahuguna Joshi brands Aparna Yadav a 'weak competitor', says confident of winning

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh),[India] Feb 19 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Lucknow Cantonment constituency Rita Bahuguna Joshi on Sunday exuded confidence and said that she will beat Samajwadi contestant and Yadav family's younger daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav in the ongoing assembly elections. Joshi asserted that her strong connection with the people of her constituency and the work which she did in her area would speak for her. "The developmental work which I have done in my constituency and the connection which I have built with the people of my area is immensely benefitting me now. My voters consider one of their own. The kind of enthusiasm I saw amongst people for me in 2012, this time it is double so I expect that I will win double the number of votes I had won last time," said Joshi. Asserting that Aparna Yadav is not her competition, Joshi said that the former has no USP other than she is a part of the Yadav family. "Mulayam Singh regressively campaigned for Aparna because they know that they have not done anything in the last tenure. They know that they are falling week. Aparna Yadav has no USP other than she is Yadav family's daughter-in law, she does not have any back ground of social service or anything," she said. Aparna's father-in-law Mulayam Singh Yadav is the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh while Joshi's father, late Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna also served as the state's chief minister. Lucknow Cantonment was the stronghold of the Congress till 1991 after which it remained with the Bharatiya Janata Party till 2012. In the last assembly election, Joshi won the seat for Congress by defeating BJP's Suresh Chandra Tewari by a margin of over 21,000 votes. With over 826 candidates from 105 political parties contesting for 69 seats, polling began on Sunday morning for the crucial third phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections. The polling began at 7 a.m. and will continue till 5 in the evening. Polling parties have been sent to polling centers amid tight security. The districts going for polling in this phase are Farrukhabad, Hardoi, Kannauj, Mainpuri, Etawah, Kanpur, Kanpur Dehat, Auraiya, Lucknow, Unnao, Sitapur and Barabanki. (ANI)