New Delhi: The flavour of Elections reside in the number of defections! Making the rebel wide open, Rajya Sabha MP Birendra Singh met BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday underscoring the growing troubles of the ruling Congress in Haryana.
One’s plead is another’s need. Well, Chaudhary Birendra Singh, a powerful Jat leader’s closed -door meeting with Shah came even as a state minister quit in rebellion against chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. It sparked speculation that he could join BJP before assembly elections in the state, due later this year.Â
Haryana’s Power Minister Ajay Singh Yadav, a retired Armyman and an influential Ahir leader from the Rewari region, resigned on Tuesday, challenging Hooda’s leadership. Captain Yadav warned as he quit, “The party has failed to learn any lessons from the Lok Sabha debacle.”
Congress posted disastrous results in the general elections – it had won only one of 10 seats, putting extreme pressure on Hooda, whose style of functioning has also been criticised by other Congress leaders from the state.Â
Birender Singh, too, has revolted openly against Hooda, refusing to contest the state elections under his leadership. Another MP, Rao Inderjeet Singh, had walked out of the Congress last year. He won the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat for BJP in the general elections and is now a minister in the Narendra Modi government.Â
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BJP, which had won seven seats in the Lok Sabha elections, is hoping to wrest Haryana from Congress, which has ruled the state for the last 10 years.Â
BJP is also reportedly looking to strengthen its base in the state to be able to contest the assembly elections on its own. It has had multiple disagreements with its partner in the state, the Haryana Janhit Congres or HJC led by Kuldeep Bishnoi.