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Haryana: Senior leader Kiran Choudhry, daughter Shruti resign from Cong, to join BJP today
Kiran Choudhry, who is representing the Tosham assembly segment and her daughter Shruti, former member of Parliament from Bhiwani-Mahendergarh, will join the BJP at the party’s national headquarters in Delhi on Wednesday
In a jolt to the Congress ahead of assembly elections in Haryana, party’s senior leader and former minister Kiran Choudhry and her daughter Shruti resigned from the primary membership of the grand-old party on Tuesday.
Kiran Choudhry, who is representing the Tosham assembly segment and her daughter Shruti, former member of Parliament from Bhiwani-Mahendergarh, will join the BJP at the party’s national headquarters in Delhi on Wednesday.
A four-time law-maker from Tosham in Bhiwani, Kiran Choudhry is the daughter-in-law of former Haryana chief minister Bansi Lal and wife of former Haryana cabinet minister late Surender Singh. She plunged into politics after the death of her husband. Surender Singh was a cabinet minister in Bhupinder Singh Hooda led-Congress government. Kiran shifted from Delhi politics from Haryana after her husband’s death in 2005. She won the Tosham bypoll in 2005, necessitated after the death of her husband and then won the assembly polls in 2009, 2014 and 2019 on Congress’s ticket. Prior to that, Kiran was one time MLA in Delhi assembly and she also served the post of speaker and deputy speaker in Delhi legislative assembly during the government of Sheela Dixit.
In her resignation letter to Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, Kiran Choudhry said, “I hereby tender my resignation from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress. I have been a loyal and steadfast member of the Congress for the last four decades and have over these years devoted my life to the party and people whom I represent. In Haryana, I also represent the legacy of Late Ch Bansi Lal, the architect of modern Haryana and my late husband Surender Singh.”
In an indirect attack on former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in the resignation letter, Kiran said, “It is most unfortunate that Congress party in Haryana is being run as the personal fiefdom leaving no space for sincere voices like mine, who have been stifled, humiliated and conspired against in a most well-orchestrated and systematic manner, thus significantly hampering my diligent efforts to represent our people and uphold the values, I have stood for..”
Kiran’s daughter Shruti said that the Congress party in Haryana has unfortunately become one-person centric, who has compromised the interest of the party for his own selfish and petty interest.
Shruti Choudhry, was holding Congress working president post and she had represented the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh parliamentary seat on Congress’s ticket from 2009 to 2014. She lost the Lok Sabha polls from Bhiwani-Mahendergarh seat in 2014 and 2019 from BJP’s Dharambir Singh.
Kiran was upset after the Congress denied ticket to her daughter Shruti in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls and fielded their rival Rao Dan Singh, a close confidante of former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
‘Shruti’s ticket was denied for personal interest’
Talking to HT, Kiran Choudhry said that Shruti was front runner in the party’s survey from Bhiwani-Mahendergarh seat but ticket was denied to her because one person was hatching conspiracy against strong Congress leaders in Haryana.
Earlier in 2022, the Hooda camp had accused the then Adampur MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi and Kiran Choudhry for party candidate Ajay Maken’s defeat in the Rajya Sabha poll. Thereafter, Kuldeep had then resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP. However, Tosham MLA Kiran Choudhry terming the allegations as rubbish, had alleged that Hooda camp was plotting such stories against her.
Three Lal’s clan join BJP in two years of time
Haryana’s three famous Lals- Devi Lal, Bhajan Lal and Bansi Lal’s clan have joined the BJP in just two years. In 2022, former Haryana CM Bhajan Lal’s son Kuldeep Bishnoi resigned from the Congress and shifted allegiance to the BJP. Ahead of Lok Sabha polls, power minister and independent MLA from Rania, Ranjit Chautala, son of former deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal joined the saffron party and fought the general polls from Hisar and remained runner-up.
Former Haryana home minister Subhash Batra said that some Congress party leaders had hatched conspiracy against Kiran, who is carrying the rich legacy of Bansi Lal and she was humiliated in the party.
“This is a loss for the Congress. Some people are working to promote the future of their sons in politics and thus humiliating the other strong leaders,” he said.
