Gurugram: Balraj Kundu will reveal his newly-minted party’s strategy for the Lok Sabha and assembly polls due next year at a rally in Jind on 1 November (Haryana Day), the Independent MLA from Meham told ThePrint Wednesday, hours after floating a new outfit, ‘Haryana Jansewak Party’, at a function at Hotel Mountview in Chandigarh.
His new party, he added, seeks to provide an alternative to the politics of the ruling BJP-JJP combine and the opposition Congress — which, according to him, has led to a system of policymaking that does not take into account the concerns of the average citizen.
“It is due to the wrong policies of successive governments that have ruled the state so far that our youth are falling prey to drugs and the crime rate has increased,” he told ThePrint.
विधायक बलराज कुंडू ने “हरियाणा जनसेवक पार्टी” लॉन्च की । 1 नवंबर को जींद की रैली में खुलासा करेंगे अपनी रणनीति का।
हमारा गठबंधन जजपा, भाजपा या कांग्रेस से नहीं होगा: कुंडू
बोले हरियाणा में बेरोजगारी, किसान की बदहाली, महंगाई, भ्रष्टाचार, घोटाले चरम पर
सूबे के बेरोजगार युवा… pic.twitter.com/yVy6Vcjiqp
— Balraj Kundu (@balrajkundu1) September 6, 2023
Kundu added that ‘misguided’ policies of the state government have affected farmers the most, “but there is no one to listen to them”.
“They (farmers) are made to pay premiums under the PMFBY (Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana), but when it comes to settling their claims, the insurance companies drag their feet,” he said.
Taking a dig at the Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana, Kundu said all sections of society are fed up with the incumbent, which he alleged had “not done anything noteworthy in the last nine years”. Crimes have multiplied in the state in all these years, he claimed, adding that the state government’s debt has increased “five-fold, inflation four-fold and unemployment three-fold” in Haryana over the past decade.
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Who is Balraj Kundu
A businessman before he took the political plunge, Balraj Kundu gained footing within the Haryana BJP between 2014 and 2019. During this time, his acts of ‘philanthropy’ elevated him to prominence in Meham assembly constituency in Rohtak district. He was expecting the BJP to field him from Meham in the 2019 assembly polls but when he was denied a ticket, Kundu jumped into the fray as an Independent — his symbol was a helicopter.
He won the seat by defeating Anand Singh Dangi of the Congress and Shamsher Kharkara of the BJP.
In his affidavit filed before the Election Commission for the 2019 assembly elections, Kundu had disclosed assets worth Rs 141 crore, besides an annual income of Rs 7.71 crore in 2018-19.
Since winning the seat in 2019, Kundu has remained equidistant from both the Congress and the BJP.
“Ever since I was elected to the state assembly from Meham, I have been serving the people using my own funds. I have been running 18 buses from my own pocket to take girls to colleges and universities in Meham and Rohtak so that they can get an education without any hassle. A free ambulance service is being run in Meham and I have donated funds for gyms in all villages of my constituency so that youngsters in the village do not turn to bad habits,” he told ThePrint.
Kundu’s family has a stake in KCC Buildcon Pvt Ltd, a highway construction firm with its office in Gurugram. According to its website, the firm has undertaken multiple projects part of the Centre’s Bharatmala Pariyojana network. These include development of a section of the Delhi-Vadodara Greenfield Alignment (NH-148N), Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway, a Multi Lane Carriageway on NH-44 in Maharashtra, and six laning of NH-8 in Gujarat.
Asked about his family’s business interests, Kundu told ThePrint, “I am not directly involved with this company. My brother Shivraj Kundu is its managing director while my other family members are also involved in this business.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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