Haryana Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi’s likely exit from the party to join the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) is bound to boost the saffron party’s hold on the non-Jat vote bank in the state that helped the saffron party to form the state’s first non-Congress government in 2019.
After Bishnoi met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda on Sunday, he is expected to quit the Congress after next week’s presidential election.
After joining the BJP, Bishnoi will lose his Assembly membership from Adampur constituency. Sources said the 53-year-old leader would field his son, Bhavya Bishnoi, for by-poll and contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Hisar as a BJP candidate. The BJP may even ask him to re-contest from Adampur and become a minister in the Manohar Lal Khattar government.
The younger son of the three-time Haryana chief minister late Bhajan Lal, Bishnoi, is expected to help the BJP garner non-Jat votes not only in Haryana but also in neighboring Rajasthan, which goes for Assembly polls next year where the Bishnoi community has a 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 managed to form government for two consecutive terms (2014 and 2019) in the state largely with the support of non-Jat voters.
Bishnoi’s father was the first non-Jat chief minister of Haryana and his family continues to find support in Hisar and its adjoining districts which will boost the BJP’s prospects in 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.
A four-time Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and a two-time Member of Parliament (MP), Bishnoi, cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha elections in favour of an independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma backed by BJP-Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) to ensure defeat of Congress’ Ajay Maken.
Bishnoi’s move came 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 that he didn’t find his name in the list of four working presidents named by the party.
Bishnoi, who merged his Haryana Janhit Congress with the Congress, claims he was promised leadership of Haryana Congress by party leader Rahul Gandhi. Gandhi didn’t meet Bishnoi after Hooda’s man was appointed Haryana Congress chief. He was stripped of all party positions by the Congress last month for cross-voting in Rajya Sabha polls.