Haryana Mahila Congress chief Sumitra Chauhan quits party; joins BJP

Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 7

Haryana Mahila Congress chief Sumitra Chauhan on Saturday resigned from her post and also from the primary membership of the party.

She said she was resigning because she was not convinced with the Congress’s stand on Article 370 and triple talaq.

Later, in the day, she joined the BJP at Rohtak in the presence of state BJP president Subhash Barala.

Chauhan, who had openly supported abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, said she had to go against her conscience to support the Congress stand on triple talaq.

Talking to The Tribune, she said she was always in favour of the Bill since it was to protect women.

Chauhan said she had now realised that there is no use of being in politics if one could not stand with what is right.

In her resignation letter addressed to Sushmita Dev, president of All India Mahila Congress, Chauhan said she was deeply concerned at the turn of events that the nation had seen over the past few months, and the party’s views on important issues facing the nation.

She alleged that the party had given a go-by to its principles when it chose to oppose the law of triple talaq, a progressive, well-meaning and courageous law for addressing the issue of Muslim women, who had suffered extreme misery.

“Today, I find myself totally disheartened and utterly devastated by the stand taken by the party on these issues of national importance. I find myself unable to accept and go along with these views,” she said in her resignation letter.