25-year-old woman who waved black flags at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in June 2017 and later participated in anti-CAA protests in January 2020, is now the Samajwadi Party candidate from Lucknow North. She is contesting against the BJP’s Neeraj Bora.

Waving black flags at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and her subsequent arrest for what she calls a democratic protest opened the doors of mainstream politics for Pooja Shukla. She is among the youngest candidates in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

Pooja was named the SP candidate on Tuesday, days after she turned 25 years on January 6 as he had already begun campaigning even before she was officially named a candidate.

Shukla comes into limelight in June 2017 when she, along with 10 others, stopped the UP chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s motorcade waving black flags at flags to protest against government policies.

Alongwith Pooja, several other students were booked and charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. They were produced before the court which remanded them to judicial custody on June 8.

Pooja and others were released after 20 days in jail when additional sessions judge PM Tripathi granted them bail on furnishing two sureties of Rs 40,000 each and a personal bond of the same amount.

Pooja subsequently met the SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and became the face of Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha, the student wing of the Samajwadi Party.

In January 2020, Pooja joined the Muslim women’s anti-CAA protests at Clock Tower in Lucknow and went to jail along with 7 others for staging protests in violation of section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Those women lost their lives while fighting for justice. They will always be remembered as ones who saved the Constitution, Pooja said.

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