I’m committed to giving up electoral politics: Birender

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, April 26

Union Steel Minister Birender Singh, whose son Brijendra Singh is the BJP candidate from Hisar, on Friday maintained that he had committed himself to staying away from electoral politics.

Talking to The Tribune, Birender (73), eldest member of Narendra Modi Cabinet, defended the party’s decision to allocate ticket to his son.

“I have submitted my resignation as Union minister and Rajya Sabha member to the party leadership. The resignations will be considered after the election process is over,” he stated.

Birender said he had decided to hang up his boots. “Post retirement, I will be available to the party organisation for any work and will try to contribute to constructive social activities,” he said.

He claimed that a BJP wave had been sweeping Haryana and the chances of re-emergence of the Congress were few. He said the BJP should work more vigorously to connect to the masses. The veteran Jat leader hails from Dumarkha village in the Uchana Kalan Assembly constituency in Jind district, which is a part of the Hisar Lok Sabha constituency.

He had been elected MLA in 1977, 1982, 1994, 1996 and 2005 from Uchana Kalan as Congress candidate. He had served as minister in Haryana thrice.

He was once considered a close aide of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He had been elected to the Rajya Sabha on Congress ticket in 2010.

He had resigned from the Rajya Sabha and quit the Congress to join the BJP in 2014. The BJP had sent him to the Rajya Sabha in June 2016 and inducted him as Union minister in Narendra Modi Cabinet.

Birender is a grandson of Chhotu Ram, farmer leader of the pre-Independence era. He is a son of Chhotu Ram’s daughter Bhagwani Devi.