Kiran Choudhry joins BJP, praises Manohar Lal Khattar as ‘my inspiration, elder brother’
Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, June 19
Haryana Congress veteran Kiran Choudhry today crossed over to the BJP, severing two-decade-old ties with the grand old party and showering praises on ex-rival and former CM Manohar Lal Khattar, who smiled as she spoke.
Kiran’s BJP foray, along with daughter Shruti, former Lok Sabha MP, comes ahead of the state Assembly poll. Saffron forces hope to capitalise on the legacy of Kiran’s father-in-law and the late Jat stalwart Bansi Lal, who had merged his Haryana Vikas Party with the Congress in 2004. BJP sources indicated a Rajya Sabha seat for Kiran going forward, while her daughter could contest the Assembly poll.
Kiran’s entry into the BJP 20 years after HVP’s merger with the Congress marks a churn in Haryana politics, with the former Congress leader vowing to “do everything it takes” to ensure a BJP win in state poll.
Kiran said she quit the Congress “inspired by the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” Though she refrained from attacking the Congress or any party colleague, Kiran’s exit is rooted in the “humiliation signalled by denial of a Lok Sabha nomination to her daughter, a former MP from Bhiwani Mahendragarh.” “There is a limit to humiliation,” Kiran told “The Tribune” today as she met BJP chief JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah and Haryana BJP poll in charge Dharmendra Pradhan.
“My objective is to ensure that the BJP comes back to power,” Kiran said.
Earlier, during the formal induction at the BJP headquarters, the Kiran-Khattar bonhomie was hard to miss. After Khattar remarked that “Kiran’s body was in the Congress but heart was always in the BJP,” she described Khattar as the “biggest inspiration and elder brother.”
“I could not say this before but today I can say this unhesitatingly. I am yet to see such an honest, diligent, grassroots leader as him. ‘Kharchi-parchi’ (corruption in recruitment) that he eradicated in Haryana was a praiseworthy effort. As the Leader of Opposition in the Haryana Assembly, I exchanged several barbs with Khattar ji but his forbearance impressed me,” said the 69-year-old in the presence of CM Nayab Singh Saini and BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh, who described Bansi Lal’s family as “the biggest Congress family of North India.”
Khattar, now Union minister, recalled Modi and Bansi Lal’s collaboration in Haryana and promised “due respect commensurate with merit and seniority” to Kiran, while she urged supporters who thronged the BJP headquarters to ensure that the “BJP flag flies high in Haryana”.
For the five-term lawmaker, former Deputy Speaker of Delhi Assembly, former Lok Sabha MP, former Haryana minister and Leader of Opposition, Wednesday marked the moment of life coming a full circle. In 2004, she announced HVP’s merger with the Congress; today, she announced the divorce.
