Gurugram: Brijendra Singh, the Lok Sabha MP from Hisar in Haryana, has bid adieu to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and joined the Congress. What’s much more worrisome for the BJP is that Brijendra’s father Birender Singh is ready to take the identical path, the previous Union minister instructed ThePrint over the cellphone after his son was inducted into the Congress Sunday.
Brijendra Singh stated he had been feeling uncomfortable inside the BJP these previous few months owing of variations of opinion with the occasion on sure points. These included the agitation by farmers demanding a authorized assure for MSP, the Agnipath scheme and the central authorities’s dealing with of the protest by ladies wrestlers.
Earlier within the day, the civil servant-turned-politician in a publish on X (previously Twitter) thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior BJP leaders for giving him the chance to signify Hisar within the seventeenth Lok Sabha. He, nevertheless, started by saying: “I have resigned from the primary membership of BJP, due to compelling political reasons.”
Hours later, Brijendra Singh reached the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi the place he was inducted into the occasion. The Congress then shared a video on X displaying Kharge and different senior leaders welcoming Singh to the occasion.
A 1998-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre, Brijendra Singh took voluntary retirement to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Hisar. He went on to defeat Jannayak Janta Party’s Dushyant Chautala and Bhavya Bishnoi, who was then with the Congress.
Following his election from Hisar, his father Birender Singh — who was a Union minister throughout Modi’s first time period from 2014 to 2019 — resigned from the Rajya Sabha in January 2020. It was stated on the time that he had resigned consistent with the occasion’s coverage of ‘one family, one post’, which it failed to use to another members of its occasion.
A veteran Congressman and the maternal grandson of peasant chief Sir Chhotu Ram, Birender Singh had switched loyalty to the BJP in August 2014 after the parliamentary polls. Before becoming a member of the BJP, Singh had resigned from his Rajya Sabha seat.
He, nevertheless, was elected for the rest of his time period as a BJP candidate in 2016, and was re-elected for one more time period on 11 June, 2016. He resigned as a member of the Upper House in January 2020, greater than two years earlier than the completion of his time period.
Known for his plainspokenness, Birender Singh confirmed to The Print over the cellphone Sunday that his son is becoming a member of the Congress, and he too would impact a “homecoming” quickly.
“We have taken the decision because of circumstances within the BJP. There is no internal democracy in the BJP. One can’t express one’s views within the party,” stated the previous Union minister. Asked why he didn’t be a part of the Congress together with son Brijendra, Birender Singh stated he would accomplish that with fanfare together with lots of of his followers.
Some different Haryana BJP leaders together with Captain Abhimanyu and Deputy Speaker Ranbir Gangwa are additionally believed to be within the queue, sources inside the BJP instructed ThePrint.
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Birender Singh: ‘Tragedy King’ in Haryana politics
In October, Birender Singh issued an ultimatum that he would stop the BJP if it continued its alliance with the JJP in Haryana.
At the identical time, he was stated to be rising more and more uncomfortable concerning the possibilities of his son and spouse Prem Lata securing tickets for the Lok Sabha polls.
Though Brijendra Singh had defeated Dushyant and Bhavya in 2019, JJP is now in alliance with the BJP. To add to that, Bhavya and his father Kuldeep Bishnoi are additionally now within the BJP.
Under the present circumstances, Birender Singh was unsure of his son getting a Lok Sabha ticket. He was additionally involved about his spouse getting a ticket for the meeting polls to be held later within the yr if the BJP have been to proceed its alliance with the JJP. Haryana Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala is sitting MLA from her Uchana Kalan constituency.
Be it the farmers’ protest in 2020-21, or the protest by ladies wrestlers, the father-son duo had spoken their minds even when they weren’t on the identical web page because the ruling occasion.
Addressing public conferences in September, Birender Singh had stated that kids in Haryana have been being compelled to depart the nation on account of poverty and unemployment.
Hemant Atri, a political analyst, nevertheless, stated Birender Singh serves as the right instance of how to not be a politician. “Singh is known by the sobriquet of ‘Tragedy King’ in Haryana politics for the wrong decisions he took. He not only spoiled his political career but is spoiling his son’s political career,” Atri instructed ThePrint.
The former Union minister ought to have defined first why he stop the Congress to hitch the BJP after which clarify why he’s leaving the BJP now, Atri added.
“He has lost his credibility as well as his legacy — the legacy of being Sir Chhotu Ram’s maternal grandson. Sir Chhotu Ram stood for farmers and Birender Singh was with the BJP when farmers were sitting on roads along Delhi’s borders for 378 days.”
Reacting to the developments, Dushyant Chautala Sunday posted a couplet on X with out naming anybody. Translated into English, it goes: “They go from door to door and change their prayers. People themselves do not change themselves but change their God.”
दर-दर पे जाकर दुआ बदलते हैं।
लोग ख़ुद नहीं बदलते, ख़ुदा बदलते हैं।— Dushyant Chautala (@Dchautala) March 10, 2024
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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