Karnal Cong coordinator, 30 others switch to BJP
The mass joining took place at district BJP office Karan Kamal, where state BJP president Mohan Lal Badoli, local MLA Jagmohan Anand, district working president Brij Bhushan Gupta and BJP mayor candidate Renu Bala Gupta were also present.
In a major boost to BJP in Karnal ahead of municipality elections, several senior leaders from Congress and other parties including district Congress coordinator Tarlochan Singh on Tuesday, along with 30 others, joined BJP in the presence of chief minister Nayab Saini.
Singh, a former chairman of Haryana Minority Commission, had contested against the previous chief minister and now Union minister Manohar Lal Khattar in 2019 and again contested in 2024 by-election against sitting chief minister Saini from Karnal assembly seat.
The mass joining took place at district BJP office Karan Kamal, where state BJP president Mohan Lal Badoli, local MLA Jagmohan Anand, district working president Brij Bhushan Gupta and BJP mayor candidate Renu Bala Gupta were also present.
Other than Singh, former chairperson of Karnal municipal council Balwinder Kalra, former district president Ashok Khurana, former councillor Kanak Rani, Congress leaders Parvesh Gaba and Rani Kamboj along with state treasurer of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Sunil Bindal and former Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) district president Amandeep Chawla joined the saffron party along with several other leaders and workers.
CM Saini met the senior leaders at their residences where Congress coordinator Singh and AAP’s Bindal joined BJP separately, while others reached the party office to attend the event.
Saini hit out at the Congress party for their “corrupt governance” and said that with these joinings particularly Singh’s, party’s mayoral candidate Renu Bala Gupta is assured of a one-sided victory.
The decision to quit Congress party was announced by Singh and Khurana early morning, after which party’s mayor candidate for Karnal municipal corporation Manoj Wadhwa along with Haryana Youth Congress president Divyanshu Budhiraja, reached their residences.
However, they failed to persuade any of them.
Tarlochan Singh, the face of Congress party in Karnal, who led several protests against the BJP government in the last decade, said that to leave the party after over four decades was not an easy choice.
The Congress leaders blamed internal differences within the party and the decision to field former deputy mayor Manoj Wadhwa as the candidate for the mayoral post as their reason to quit.
Singh thanked the party leadership for the opportunities he was given but also hit out at former two-time Congress MLA from Karnal Sumita Singh for not supporting him during the elections.
Sumita meanwhile termed the development unfortunate.