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 25-year-old Pooja Shukla.

She is now the Samajwadi Party (SP) 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 June 7, 2017, when Yogi was on his way to the Lucknow University campus to take part in 'Hindi Swaraj Diwas' event, students affiliated to All India Students Association, Students Federation of India and Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha sat on the road and blocked his convoy, showed him black flags and raised slogans against the state government,¿ Shukla told PTI.