What has come as a major blow to the Congress party in Haryana, where assembly elections are due for the month of October, is its veteran leader Kiran Choudhry announcing her departure from the party along with her daughter Shruti Choudhry, all set to join hands with the ruling BJP on Wednesday.
Both district MLA from Tosham in Bhiwani Kiran Choudhry and former MP Shruti Choudhry, who is also the former working president of the Haryana Congress unit, resigned from the primary membership of the Congress on Tuesday afternoon. Their resignation letters to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge indirectly criticized former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, stating that he was running the state unit of the Congress like his "personal fiefdom."
Listing out her reasons for leaving the Congress, Kiran Choudhry, who severed her four-decade-long association with the party, said that the Haryana Congress had no space for sincere voices like hers. She said, "It is most unfortunate that the Congress party in Haryana is being run as the personal fiefdom leaving no space for sincere voices like mine who have been stifled, humiliated, and conspired against in a most well-orchestrated and systematic manner, thus considerably denting my sincere efforts to represent our people and uphold the values I always stood for."
Shruti Choudhry sent in her resignation letter, pointing out that Haryana Congress has been one-person centric and more interested in compromising the party's interests for personal gain. She said, "The Haryana Congress Party has unfortunately come to mean a one-person-centric party, compromising the interest of the party for his own selfish and petty interests; thus, time has come for me to move on so that I may continue to uphold the interest of my people and the values which I stand for."
The Choudhrys' joining the BJP is going to be a big boost to the ruling party ahead of polls in Haryana. Kiran Choudhry, a known Bhupinder Singh Hooda baiter within the Congress ranks, said that the inequitable ticket distribution and other internal issues of the party had prompted her to leave the party.
While thanking the Congress leadership for the opportunity to serve, both have stated that Kiran Choudhry and Shruti Choudhry stand ready to join the BJP unconditionally. This move by independent politicians looks to be a296 smart tactical shift in the political happenings of Haryana, which might alter electoral dynamics as the days unfold ahead.
