Aparna Yadav, the sister-in-law of Akhilesh Yadav, has joined the BJP.

Aparna Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav's sister-in-law, has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), dealing a blow to the Samajwadi Party only weeks before the Uttar Pradesh election. 

Aparna Yadav is the wife of Mulayam Singh Yadav's younger son Pratik Yadav, who is Akhilesh Yadav's brother. 

It is a significant gain for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh after many of its backward caste leaders, including three state ministers, recently defected to the Samajwadi Party.

The news of his sister-in-law Aparna Yadav joining the opposition party comes just days after Yogi Adityanath's cabinet experienced a string of high-profile resignations. 

Swami Prasad Maurya, Dharam Singh Saini, and Dara Singh Chauhan are three former UP ministers who have joined Akhilesh Yadav's party. 

MLAs including Vinay Shakya, Roshan Lal Verma, Mukesh Verma, and Bhagwati Sagar followed the same path following the evacuation.

Aparna Yadav ran for the Samajwadi Party in the 2017 state election in Lucknow Cantt, but lost to Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who had left the Congress to join the BJP at the time. 

Aparna is the founder of bAware, a women's rights organisation that also manages a cow refuge in Lucknow. Ms Yadav has already made headlines for her praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.