Decode Politics: How Congress veteran Kiran Choudhry’s switch to BJP may play out in Haryana ahead of polls

Here is a look at the political implications of Kiran’s move for both the BJP and the Congress in the run-up to the state Assembly polls slated for October this year.

What are Haryana Cong equations?

The state Congress is broadly divided into two rival factions – the Hooda group and the “SRK (Kumari Selja, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Kiran Choudhry)” camp. While Hooda’s clout has been on the rise with the Congress leadership having appointed his loyalist Udai Bhan as the state party chief, its rival faction has launched a parallel campaign to hold out in state politics.

The Hooda-Kiran feud started in 2008 when the then CM Hooda divested her of the environment portfolio, but had to reverse his decision within 24 hours after the party high command intervened.

The relations between the two leaders further soured in 2022 after the Hooda camp blamed Kiran for an “invalid vote” in the Rajya Sabha polls which led to the defeat of Congress candidate Ajay Maken.

Their differences boiled over after the Congress preferred Rao Dhan Singh, a Hooda loyalist, over Shruti for the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh seat in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

As the talk about Kiran’s exit from the Congress started gaining momentum, Selja seemed to back her. “Kiran’s displeasure is natural as injustice was meted out to Shruti. We could have swept the polls had the ticket distribution been better. For instance, we would have won Bhiwani-Mahendergarh had Shruti been fielded from here,” she said.

What was the LS ticket row in Cong?

Hooda seemed to have managed to get a lion’s share of tickets for his supporters in the Lok Sabha polls, in which the Congress managed to up its tally to five seats out of 10 from zero in 2019. Apart from this, the Opposition INDIA bloc managed to secure a lead in 46 of the state’s 90 Assembly segments, leading to the buzz that Hooda would have his say in picking nominees for the upcoming Assembly polls as well.

Even as Kiran alleged that she was “ignored” during the Lok Sabha poll campaign, Hooda’s supporters claim that it was the Congress high command, which denied a ticket to her daughter. They also accused her of not working “whole-heartedly” for Dhan Singh, who lost to the BJP’s Dharambir Singh by over 40,000 votes while securing a lead in Tosham, from where Kiran has won the last four elections consecutively.

Hooda had slammed Kiran for her charges over the ticket distribution. “This is her thinking. The Congress’s performance has been good this time. The INDIA bloc has secured the highest vote share in Haryana as compared to other states,” he said.

The prevailing circumstances led Kiran’s supporters to believe that they were isolated within the party. “With Hooda taking all decisions, we had no option but to leave the Congress,” a close associate of Kiran told The Indian Express.

However, the Hooda camp claims their exit would not affect the party’s prospects in the Assembly polls.

What does Kiran’s exit mean for Cong?

Kiran and Shruti’s resignation and the “SRK” combine losing a key partner will likely strengthen Hooda’s dominance in the Haryana Congress.

“Hooda is the leader of all 36 “biradaris (communities) in Haryana. He believes in taking along everyone in the party. The Congress will win more than 70 seats in the Haryana Assembly elections (under his leadership),” Badli Congress MLA and Hooda’s close aide Kuldeep Vats said.

On the other hand, Hooda’s critics within the party are likely to step up their attacks and put the blame for senior leaders’ exit on him. “We wanted her (Kiran) to stay in the Congress but she has faced a lot of atrocities (in the Congress),” Selja said.

Meanwhile, hours after Kiran joined the BJP, the Congress rushed to seek Kiran’s disqualification from the Assembly with deputy leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Aftab Ahmed and chief whip B B Batra writing to Speaker Gian Chand Gupta in this regard.

What does BJP hope to gain?

With Kiran’s induction, the BJP is looking to expand its base ahead of the Assembly polls in Bhiwani, a region where late Bansi Lal enjoys a lot of respect, at a time when the party suffered a setback in the state.

Just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP was left reeling after Jat leaders Brijendra Singh, and his father and former Union minister Birendra Singh quit the party to join the Congress.

As Kiran also belongs to the Jat community, the BJP believes her induction will boost the party’s standing among the voters of the community, which makes up almost a fourth of the state’s population.