UP Election 2022: Girl who waved black flag at CM Yogi gets SP ticket

Waving black flags at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and her subsequent arrest over the protest opened the doors of mainstream politics for 25-year-old Pooja Shukla.

She is now the Samajwadi Party's candidate from Lucknow North and is among the youngest candidates in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

Shukla hogged the limelight in June 2017 when she, along with 10 others, tried to stop Adityanath's cavalcade on the Lucknow University Road and waved black flags to protest against government policies.

On being released from jail after 20 days, Pooja met SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and became the face of Samajwadi Chatra Sabha, the party’s student wing.

Pooja Shukla is now pitted against BJP’s Neeraj Bora.

While the SP gave the ticket to Shukla, Sadaf Jafar, known face of the ant-CAA-NRC protests in UP, was fielded by the Congress Party from Lucknow Central.