Gurugram: The Congress has denied a ticket to Hisar MP Brijendra Singh, who give up the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) to affix the Congress final month. He’s the son of former Union minister Birender Singh, a identified detractor of former chief minister Bhupinder Hooda, who returned to the Congress earlier this month after a decade within the BJP.
In its record of eight candidates for Haryana declared late Thursday, the Congress fielded Jai Prakash, a three-term MP and Hooda loyalist, from Hisar. Brijendra gained the seat in 2019 on a BJP ticket, after resigning from the Indian Administrative Providers.
Equally, Hooda’s son Deepender, a Rajya Sabha MP, has been fielded from the Rohtak seat, which he misplaced to the BJP by a slender margin of just a little greater than 7,000 votes in 2019.
The Congress additionally declared the candidature of Kumari Selja, a identified Hooda detractor, from Sirsa. Haryana Youth Congress president Divyanshu Budhiraja, a Deepender loyalist, will tackle former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Karnal. Different candidates declared Thursday embody Mahendra Pratap Singh from Faridabad, Rao Dan Singh from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Varun Choudhary from Ambala, and Satpal Brahmachari from Sonipat.
The occasion is but to declare its candidate from Gurugram. Get together sources instructed ThePrint that actor-politician Raj Babbar is amongst these in search of a ticket from Gurugram.
In the meantime, Kurukshetra — that went to the Aam Aadmi Get together (AAP) as a part of its seat-sharing with the Congress — will see a contest between former AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Gupta and industrialist Naveen Jindal, contesting on a BJP ticket. Gupta is president of Haryana AAP.
“It is very disappointing for us. The Congress has ignored the claims of a person who came leaving a bhari thaali (full platter) behind in the BJP. Even before he joined the Congress, senior leadership of the party had given assurance though I am not aware of all the details. But still, the party chose to ignore our leader,” mentioned Vijay Kaushik, a senior state Congress functionary who is taken into account near Birender Singh’s household.
Kaushik alleged that Brijendra was denied a ticket on the occasion of Hooda who it’s believed calls the pictures in Haryana Congress these days. “It is unfortunate that the Congress high command is very weak at this time. In such a scenario, local leaders run the party at their will. This is what is happening in Haryana at present,” mentioned Kaushik.
He, nevertheless, added that ups and downs are a part of politics.
One other Congress chief thought-about near Birender Singh’s household claimed that if the occasion discovered itself within the working for seats in Haryana right now, Brijendra Singh’s resignation from the BJP was the occasion that modified the notion that the state can be a walkover for the BJP, which gained all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana in 2019.
ThePrint reached Birender and Brijendra Singh for remark by way of calls however had not acquired a response by the point of publication. This report might be up to date if and when a response is acquired.
In addition to Brijendra Singh, Shruti Choudhry’s was one other distinguished identify lacking from the Congress’s record of candidates. The granddaughter of former Haryana chief minister Bansi Lal and daughter of former state minister the late Surender Singh and Congress chief Kiran Choudhry, Shruti gained her first election from Bhiwani — a seat her late father gained twice — in 2009. Nonetheless, she was unable to retain the seat in 2014 or win it again in 2019.
Requested to remark, Kiran Choudhry instructed ThePrint that although it’s the occasion’s determination to not area her daughter from the seat, she believes Shruti would have gained this time.
Considered one of her supporters, nevertheless, mentioned on situation of anonymity that the ticket was given to Rao Dan Singh at Hooda’s occasion.
Bhupinder Singh Hooda, however, maintained that the record was finalised by the occasion excessive command.
He instructed The Print that he was by and enormous happy by the candidates fielded by the occasion. Confronted with the allegation that the record of candidates bore his stamp and some like Brijendra Singh and Shruti Choudhry have been excluded from the record at his occasion, Hooda maintained that it’s “not my list but the Congress party’s list”.
Additionally Learn: ‘My father & I considered outsiders in BJP’ — Hisar MP Brijendra Singh, who give up occasion to affix Congress
Father, son’s flip to Congress
Brijendra Singh had resigned from the BJP to affix the Congress on 10 March, at a time when a number of leaders from different events have been making a beeline for the BJP. After he joined the Congress, he met former occasion presidents Sonia and Rahul Gandhi at their residence.
Denial of a ticket to his son has as soon as once more introduced concentrate on Birender Singh, additionally identified in Haryana’s political circles by the sobriquet of “Tragedy King” owing to his unfulfilled ambition to change into chief minister. Birender Singh had give up the Congress he was related to since his father’s time and joined the BJP in 2014. He was then made a Union minister.
Nonetheless, when he sought a ticket for son Brijendra from Hisar in 2019, he was made to resign from the Rajya Sabha. Brijendra gained the seat by defeating Dushyant Chautala of the Jannayak Janta Get together (JJP) and Bhavya Bishnoi, who was then with the Congress, however within the meeting polls in October 2019, Brijendra’s mom Prem Lata misplaced to Chautala within the household bastion Uchana Kalan.
Brijendra, mentioned occasion sources, started feeling sidelined within the BJP after Dushyant joined the Manohar Lal Khattar authorities in 2019 as deputy chief minister. This was additionally evident by his repeated opposition to the BJP’s alliance with the JJP in Haryana.
On 2 October final 12 months, Birender Singh had organised “Meri Awaz Suno” (hearken to what I’ve to say) rally at Jind, giving the BJP an ultimatum to snap ties with the JJP.
Nonetheless, son Brijendra give up the BJP to affix the Congress simply two days earlier than the BJP and the JJP declared the top of their alliance.
Birender Singh — the CM that by no means was
Birender Singh efficiently contested his first meeting election from Uchana Kalan in 1977 as a Congress candidate, bucking the robust wave of discontent towards the occasion following the Emergency. He has since gained this seat 4 occasions — 1982, 1991, 1996, and 2005 — and has been a minister within the Bhajan Lal and Bhupinder Hooda governments.
Son of Neki Ram, a politician in undivided Punjab, and maternal grandson of Jat chief the late Chhotu Ram, Birender Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984 from Hisar and later served as a member of the Rajya Sabha from 2010 until 2020.
In 1991, he was reportedly promised the place of chief minister by former prime minister after which Congress president, Rajiv Gandhi. However Gandhi’s assassination in Could that 12 months turned the tide towards him, and Bhajan Lal was made chief minister of Haryana.
His second ‘missed’ shot on the prime put up got here in 2013, when, as a Congressman, he was reportedly being thought-about for a berth in PM Manmohan Singh’s Cupboard, however was ultimately dropped, it’s believed, on the insistence of Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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