Kiran Choudhry, former Haryana Cabinet Minister and Congress Legislature Party leader, and her daughter, Shruti, a former Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha member, resigned from the party’s primary membership on Tuesday, alleging that she was “humiliated and conspired against in a most well-orchestrated manner”.
Ms. Choudhry, MLA from Tosham, confirmed to The Hindu over the phone that she and her daughter will join the BJP on June 19. However, she denied reports that the BJP had offered her a Rajya Sabha seat and said she was joining the State’s ruling party “unconditionally”. The resignations come ahead of Haryana Assembly poll scheduled later this year.
The Tosham MLA had made no secret of her disappointment over the denial of the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha ticket to her daughter. The party had fielded Mahendragarh MLA Rao Dan Singh, considered a close confidant of two-time Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, from the seat.
Mr. Singh, however, lost to BJP’s Dharambir Singh by over 40,000 votes and accused Ms. Choudhry of betraying the party.
In her resignation letter to Congress national president Mallikarjung Kharge, Ms. Choudhry said the “Congress party in Haryana is being run as a 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”.
She further said that she was “compelled to look forward at a fresh start” to serve the people of the State.
Her daughter, the State Congress working president, in her resignation letter, said the Congress in Haryana had become centred around one person “who has compromised the interests of the party for his own selfish interests”.
Speaking to local news channels a day before her resignation, Ms. Choudhry had said that senior party leaders were “targeted” during the ticket distribution for the Lok Sabha election with the aim of ending their political careers. She also said without naming anyone that several ticket aspirants were being groomed in each Assembly constituency, who would eventually ruin the party’s prospects by cutting votes for party candidates. The Tosham MLA added that the Congress seemed to have no future in the Assembly polls.
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