Suheli Mehta (44), younger sister of RJD leader and cooperative department minister Alok Mehta, is sure the JDU has a brighter future than the RJD.

She said so on joining the JDU - which has 71 MLAs as against the RJD's 80 - on Monday in the presence of JDU state president Bashishtha Narayan Singh and Rajya Sabha member RCP Singh. "If the JDU didn't have a bright future, I wouldn't have joined it."

Asked why she didn't join the RJD when her brother was a senior leader and could have guided her, Suheli said she is motivated by chief minister Nitish Kumar's work. "I'm motivated by the way he is implementing prohibition and the social causes he has taken up, like against dowry and child marriage," Suheli said. "Nitish ji's seven resolves and the respect the party accords to women are commendable. All this is apparent from the decision to reserve 50 per cent panchayat seats and 33 per cent government jobs for women."

Asked why she was not impressed by RJD chief Lalu Prasad's work, Suheli avoided comment. "I like the JDU's agenda that's why I joined it."

She ducked questions on what was wrong with RJD's agenda. She said she and her minister brother do their politics differently and she had never sought any favours from her brother, who represented the party when Meira Kumar filed her nomination papers for the presidential polls.

Suheli was among the first to join the party at the JDU office on Monday in the presence of over a hundred of her supporters who raised pro-Nitish slogans. A few others also joined the JDU on Monday. State party chief Bashishtha said the party started its membership drive on Nitish's instructions. He gave the new members receipts whereas RCP Singh presented them the party symbol.

Suheli has twice contested Assembly elections, from Parbatta in Khagaria district. She first contested a bypoll there when then RJD MLA Samrat Choudhary had quit the party to join the JDU.

Parbhatta was one of 10 Assembly seats where bypolls took place in August 2014, soon after the Lok Sabha elections.

Suheli contested the bypoll on a Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) ticket but lost to the JDU's Ramanand Prasad Singh who won by 56,990 votes. Suheli even forfeited her security deposit. After losing the election, she left the party citing differences with LJP parliamentary board chairman Chirag Paswan.

She contested the 2015 Assembly elections from the same seat on a ticket by Pappu Yadav's Jan Adhikar Party Loktantrik but again lost to the JDU's Ramanand.