Haryana Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi appears all set to join the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on 4 August.
“August 4, 2022, 10.10 am,” tweeted Bishnoi on Tuesday. “Don’t be afraid to start over. It’s a chance to build something better this time…” he said in another tweet indicating the switch over to the BJP.
Before joining the BJP, Bishnoi is likely to resign as Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Adampur. Sources said the 53-year-old leader would field his son Bhavya Bishnoi for the by-poll and contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Hisar as the BJP candidate. The BJP may even ask him to re-contest from Adampur and become a minister in the Manohar Lal Khattar government.
Bishnoi’s entry into the BJP would boost the saffron party’s hold over non-Jat vote bank in the state which helped the party form the state’s first non-Congress government in 2019 for the second consecutive term.
A four-time Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and a two-time Member of Parliament (MP) Bishnoi cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha election in favour of a BJP-BJP-Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma who defeated Congress’ Ajay Maken.
This was days after the Congress named a Bhupinder Hooda loyalist, Udai Bhan, as the Haryana Congress president. The clout of the strong Jat leader (Hooda), ensured Bishnoi didn’t find his name in the list of four working presidents named by the party.
Days after cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha election, Bishnoi had met Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda last month.
The younger son of three-time Haryana chief minister late Bhajan Lal, Bishnoi, is expected to help the BJP garner non-Jat votes not just Haryana but also in neighboring Rajasthan, which goes for Assembly polls next year, where the Bishnoi community has presence in about 32 constituencies.
In the past, Jats, who comprise about 26 per cent of Haryana population, dominated the state politics but the BJP has managed to form government for two consecutive terms (2014 and 2019) in the state largely with support of non-Jat voters.
Bishnoi’s father was the first non-Jat chief minister of Haryana and his family still continues to find support in Hisar and its adjoining districts which will boost the BJP’s prospects in 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.
Bishnoi, who merged his Haryana Janhit Congress with the Congress, claims he was promised the leadership of Haryana Congress by the party leader Rahul Gandhi. Gandhi didn’t meet Bishnoi after Hooda’s man was appointed Haryana Congress chief. He was expelled by the Congress from all party positions after cross voting in Rajya Sabha poll.