BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi today said her son, who is seeking the party's ticket to fight the UP elections, has the right to do so even as she maintained that she is not lobbying for his candidature.
Ms Joshi, the Lok Sabha MP from Allahabad, was in Delhi where she met BJP's Uttar Pradesh in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan. She said it was a "courtesy call" to discuss party issues.
Rita Bahuguna Joshi said that her son expecting a BJP ticket is a separate story and that she met Mr Pradhan to discuss zonal issues related to the party ahead of the UP polls.
"If he's asking for a party ticket, then it's his right to seek it. But that is not the issue I had discussed today. I have already said that I do not intend to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In fact, I do not want to fight any polls," she told reporters.
"I am not lobbying for my son. The party has his profile and will decide accordingly," she added.
Speculation is rife that Ms Joshi's son Mayank Joshi is trying hard to get the BJP's ticket to fight the Assembly election from Lucknow Cantonment, the seat his mother had won in the 2017 state polls but vacated in 2019 after she was elected to the Lok Sabha from Allahabad.
The BJP's Suresh Chandra Tiwari had won the Lucknow Cantt seat in the 2019 bypolls, defeating Samajwadi Party's Aparna Yadav, the younger daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Lucknow Cantt is one of the nine assembly constituencies in the Lucknow district and has a sizeable population of Hindu Brahmin voters.
Lucknow Cantt will vote on February 23 in the fourth phase of the Uttar Pradesh elections. Votes will be counted on March 10.
