Union Steel Minister in the previous Modi government, Chaudhary Birender Singh, and his wife Premlata Singh, resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on April 8. The couple will join the Congress party at Delhi on April 9.
Mr. Singh told The Hindu that he and his wife, a former MLA, will join the Congress along with many supporters. “I had already announced [our decision] to quit the BJP in case they continued to have an alliance with the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP). Though the alliance fell apart two days after my son and Hisar MP Brijendra Singh resigned and joined the Congress, the decision was already made and could not be reversed,” Mr. Singh said over phone.
He said that he had been very vocal on issues, including the farmers’ agitation against the three farms laws, the wrestlers’ protest, and the Agniveer Scheme, and these too were among the reasons for his decision to quit the BJP.
Mr. Singh, at a rally in Haryana’s Jind on October 2, 2023 had threatened to quit the BJP over its alliance with the JJP in the State, and advised the saffron party to go solo in the elections.
Former Deputy Chief Minister and JJP leader Dushyant Chautala had contested and lost the Hisar Lok Sabha election as the JJP’s candidate in 2019. Similarly, the Uchana Kalan Assembly segment in Jind, Mr. Singh’s home turf, is currently represented by Mr. Chautala. He had defeated Mr. Singh’s wife Premlata in the 2019 Assembly election, and has already announced his decision to contest the next Assembly election from Uchana Kalan. The JJP would have claimed both — the Hisar Lok Sabha seat and the Uchana Kalan Assembly segment — had the BJP-JJP alliance remained intact.
