Lawyer of 2012 Delhi Nirbhaya gang rape case joins BSP

Seema Samridhi Kushwaha, a Supreme Court advocate who secured justice in one of the country’s most spectacular rape cases, has joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections. Nirbhaya’s lawyer in the 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder case was inducted into the BSP on Thursday in Lucknow, in the presence of the party’s national general secretary Satish Chandra Misra.

Seema Kushwaha had previously stated that she is joining the BSP in order to fight for the rights of Dalits and the underprivileged. The South Carolina lawyer had made headlines for her eight-year legal battle to bring justice to a 23-year-old medical student who was viciously raped by six men on a moving bus and left to die on December 16, 2012. Seema Kushwaha fought for justice in the Hathras rape and murder case years after the defendants were sentenced to death. She also formed the Nirbhaya Jyoti charity and started a campaign to fight for rape victims without charge.

Seema Samridhi Kushwaha is from the Uttar Pradesh town of Etawah. Her acceptance into Mayawati’s party comes just days before the statewide election in Uttar Pradesh. Between February 10 and March 7, voters will cast votes for 403 seats in the state legislature. On March 10, the vote will be counted.

BSP leader Satish Chandra Misra recently declared that Mayawati, the party’s chief and former chief minister, will not run for re-election in Uttar Pradesh this year, but will oversee the party’s election campaign in the state and the other two poll-bound states.