CHANDIGARH/NEW DELHI, Mar 10:
Ahead of the Parliamentary elections, BJP MP from Hisar Brijendra Singh on Sunday resigned from the party’s primary membership and the Lok Sabha due to “compelling political reasons” and joined the Congress.
In New Delhi, Congress treasurer Ajay Maken said Brijendra Singh’s father and BJP leader Birender Singh is also likely to join the grand old party in the next few days.
Soon after announcing his resignation on X, Brijendra Singh reached Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence in the national capital and joined the opposition party.
Besides Maken, senior Congress leaders Mukul Wasnik and Deepak Babaria were present on the occasion.
In a post on X, Brijendra Singh said, “I have resigned from the primary membership of BJP due to compelling political reasons. I extend gratitude to the party, National President Sh. J P Nadda, Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi, & Sh Amit Shah for giving me the opportunity to serve as the Member of Parliament for Hisar.”
“I have also resigned from the membership of Lok Sabha. I am grateful to the people of Hisar for giving me the opportunity to represent them and raise their demands as their MP. The commitment of public service, with which I entered politics after leaving the job of IAS, will continue,” he said in another post.
Speaking to reporters after joining the Congress, the bureaucrat-turned-politician said he decided to resign from the BJP “on account of the unease that had been building up for a while due to certain political reasons”.
“The unease was primarily about ideological issues and I did not agree on several issues like farmers’ issues, Agniveer issue and treatment of international women wrestlers,” he said.
“The BJP-JJP alliance was also another major reason behind my unease in the BJP,” he added.
Brijendra Singh thanked the Congress leadership, including Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Sandhi, for welcoming him into the party fold.
Congress sources said Brijendra Singh is set to be the party candidate from Hisar.
There was speculation that he may be replaced as Hisar MP and would not be fielded again from the constituency by the BJP as the JJP was demanding the seat.
Maken said the Congress is happy to announce that Brijendra Singh is joining the party.
His father and former Union minister Birender Singh is also likely to join the Congress in the next few days, Maken said.
“Chaudhary Birender Singh has informed (us) that he would join the party at a public meeting,” the Congress treasurer added.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Brijendra Singh had defeated JJP’s Dushyant Chautala and Bhavya Bishnoi, who was then with the Congress, to win the Hisar Lok Sabha seat.
Brijendra Singh is the great-grandson of prominent Jat leader Sir Chhotu Ram.
In October last year, Birender Singh had served an ultimatum to the BJP, virtually threatening to quit if the party continued its alliance with the JJP, which he accused of indulging in rampant corruption, in Haryana.
The JJP had extended support to the BJP after the former fell short of the majority in the 2019 Haryana assembly polls. (PTI)
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