Former Haryana Congress Kiran Choudhry and her daughter Shruti Choudhry joined the BJP on Wednesday, ahead of the assembly polls in Haryana slated to be held later this year.
Kiran Choudhry, 69, and Shruti Choudhry joined the party at an event held in the BJP office in the presence of Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, former Chief Minister and Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh and other party leaders.
Kiran Choudhry is the daughter-in-law of late former Haryana Chief Minister and Congress stalwart Bansi Lal. She and her daughter Shruti resigned from the primary membership of Congress on Tuesday after she took a dig at former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, alleging that the party's state unit was being run as a "personal fiefdom".
On her decision to join the BJP, Kiran Choudhry said she was inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to develop India by 2047.
"Today, I took this decision because of the Prime Minister, who has pledged to have a developed India by 2047. I have full faith that India will shine in the world. The public welfare work done by the Prime Minister has led to the formation of a BJP government in Delhi for the third time," she said.
"I have worked a lot with Khattar ji. There used to be a lot of bitterness between us. But the way he worked has been my source of inspiration," she added.
She alleged that the Haryana Congress became an "individual-centric party" and said she took the call to quit the party so that her worker got their rights equally.
"I was a very dedicated worker of the Congress. I dedicated my life to 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," she told news agency ANI.
"So, you can understand that Congress would never have progressed in Haryana. Big leaders quit the party due to them. I took this step to ensure that my workers get their due rights and equal rights," she said.
Following her induction into the party, Khattar recalled Kiran Choudhry's association with him.
"Today is a very historic day. Today, two prominent personalities are in the party who have worked in the Congress for many years. I have known Kiran ji since the time we worked with Bansi Lal ji. Kiran ji and I used to sit face to face in the assembly, but, after some time, we used to know what we wanted to say," he said.
On the other hand, Saini said the BJP will work to strengthen the party in Haryana ahead of the assembly polls in the state.
Shruti Choudhry was also the working president of the Haryana unit of the Congress. She is a sitting MLA from Tosham in Haryana's Bhiwani district and considered a bete noire of Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
In their resignation letters to Kharge, while Kiran Choudhry wrote that the Haryana Congress is being run as a "personal fiefdom", Shruti Choudhry, in an apparent reference to Hooda, alleged that the state unit centres around one person who has compromised the interest of the party for his own "selfish" and "petty interests".
Kiran Choudhry was learnt to be upset with the denial of a ticket to Shruti Choudhry from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls as well as with the overall distribution of tickets by the party in the state.
The Congress contested nine of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, while the Kurukshetra seat was unsuccessfully fought by the INDIA bloc constituent AAP. The Congress wrested five seats from the BJP.
Reacting to Kiran Choudhry's resignation from the Congress, party leader Shamsher Singh Gogi said he felt sad and regretted that she left the party. However, he said the Congress leadership needed to seriously take note of the grievances raised by party leaders and workers.
"She was in Congress and she struggled in her whole life. If she had some issues, she should have met the high command. High command also needs to seriously take note of such incidents. It is the duty of our leadership to find a solution to this," Gogi, a Congress MLA from Assandh, told ANI.
"This is my personal opinion. I don't know what happened exactly, but something has happened. This is very unfortunate," he said.
