(L to R) Former Haryana Congress leaders Kiran Choudhry and her daughter Shruti Choudhry with BJP leaders J P Nadda and Manohar Lal Khattar.
Credit: X/@officekiran
New Delhi: Former Congress Haryana leader Kiran Choudhary on Wednesday joined the BJP along with her daughter, a day after she left the Congress.
She is likely to get the Rajya Sabha seat vacated by Deepender Hooda.
Chaudhary joined the BJP in the presence of union minister Manohar Lal Khattar, party national general secretary Tarun Chugh, and Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini at the party headquarters alongside daughter Shruti.
Speaking to reporters at the BJP headquarters on Wednesday, she alleged that the Haryana unit of the Congress is now run as a “personal fiefdom”, pointing at former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
“I was a very dedicated worker of the Congress. I dedicated my life to the Congress with hard work. But for a few years, I watched the Haryana Congress become an individual-centric party. They didn't want Congress to go ahead and follow such policies. So, you can understand that the Congress would never have progressed in Haryana,” she told reporters.
She said that some “big leaders” have quit the party due to these individuals; former Congress leader Ashok Tanwar, too, had left the party to join the BJP.
“I took this step to ensure that my workers get their due rights, equal rights,” Choudhary said at the press conference.
Choudhary, a three-term MLA, is daughter-in-law of Bansi Lal, who has been chief minister of the state for three terms, apart from being an MP for three more. The family also yields influence among Jats, a community the BJP is keen to woo, especially after the party lost five of the 10 seats in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections. In 2019, the BJP had swept the state winning all 10 seats.
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