Poonam Devi Yadav.
Credit: X/@khagariamla149
Patna: The Congress in Bihar on Wednesday claimed to have received a shot in the arm with the induction of JD(U) leader and former MLA Poonam Devi Yadav.
She joined the Congress here at the Sadaqat Ashram, the BPCC headquarters, in the presence of state president Akhilesh Prasad Singh.
Yadav, who had won the Khagaria assembly seat three times in a row, lost to Chhatrapati Yadav of the Congress in 2020 polls by a thin margin of 3,000 votes.
Her husband Ranveer Yadav had also won the seat, in 1990, as an Independent.
However, talking to reporters on the occasion, she said "I feel that I have returned home after a long 'vanvaas' (period spent in wilderness). Old timers would recall that I had made my debut in the late 1990s on a Congress ticket. After my defeat, leaders of the Samata Party convinced me to cross over, stressing that Congress was a spent force".
Notably, the JD(U), headed by Nitish Kumar, was earlier known as Samata Party, which he had floated in the 1990s, along with mentor late George Fernandes.