Haryana: Finally Birender Singh quits BJP, to join Congress on Tuesday

The veteran Jat leader who joined the BJP in 2014 is set to join the Congress again on Tuesday in Delhi along with his wife Prem Lata, who was an MLA of the BJP from the Uchana assembly segment from 2014-19

Former union minister Birender Singh on Monday finally resigned from the primary membership of the BJP and announced to join the Congress, a development that comes almost a month after his son and BJP’s sitting Hisar MP Brijendra Singh joined the Congress.

Birender Singh said he had sent his resignation to BJP national president JP Nadda (HT photo)

The veteran Jat leader who joined the BJP in 2014 is set to join the Congress again on Tuesday in Delhi along with his wife Prem Lata, who was an MLA of the BJP from the Uchana assembly segment from 2014-19.

Talking to reporters in Delhi, Birender Singh said he had sent his resignation to BJP national president JP Nadda.

Responding to a question, the former union minister said he had joined the BJP due to some circumstances and had left the Congress after about four decades.

“During farmers’ stir, I raised the issue on the party platform and urged the top leadership to resolve their issues. I felt that my suggestions were not implemented. The BJP delayed taking action on my other suggestion of snapping ties with the Jannayak Janata party (JJP). In October last year, I had announced to part ways with the BJP, if it continues its alliance with the JJP,” he said.

Birender Singh, maternal grand-son of peasantry leader Chhotu Ram, had left the Congress ahead of the 2014 general election and joined the BJP. He won five assembly elections from Uchana assembly constituency of Jind district and served as cabinet minister in Congress-led Haryana governments on three occasions.

After quitting the Congress in 2014 the BJP had rewarded him with a berth in the Rajya Sabha and later appointed him Union minister.

The BJP’s alliance with the JJP was at the root of Birender Singh’s differences with the BJP. His unease with JJP was due to the tussle over the assembly constituency Uchana Kalan, the pocket borough of the family.

For instance, in October 2014 assembly polls, Birender’s wife Prem Lata contested as a BJP candidate and defeated Dushyant Chautala (then INLD nominee) in Uchana. Dushyant was a sitting MP from Hisar when he contested the 2014 assembly poll from Uchana.

As BJP nominee from Hisar, Brijendra Singh defeated JJP candidate Dushyant Chautala by over 3,00,000 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Later, in the October 2019 assembly polls, Dushyant, as a JJP nominee, defeated Prem Lata in Uchana Kalan and stitched a post-poll alliance with the BJP to form the coalition government that continued till March 12, 2024.