Gurugram: Nearly two months after she quit the Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), former Tosham MLA Kiran Choudhry filed her nomination papers Wednesday as the BJP candidate in a Rajya Sabha by-election.
The seat was vacated by the Congress’s Deepender Singh Hooda after he was elected to the Lok Sabha in the general elections held in May this year.
With Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana’s leader of the Opposition (LoP), having already announced that the Congress won’t field a candidate in the seat since the party doesn’t have the numbers, Choudhry’s election seems a foregone conclusion.
Speaking to reporters after Choudhry filed her nomination, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said: “Four JJP (Jannayak Janta Party) MLAs, one Independent, and HLP’s (Haryana Lokhit Party) Gopal Kanda have backed Choudhry’s candidature for the Rajya Sabha seat. With 41 BJP MLAs in the House, which effectively has a strength of 87 (after the death of Badshahpur MLA Rakesh Daulatabad and the resignations of Choudhry and Ranjit Singh Chautala), Choudhry has the support of 47 MLAs.”
Her nomination for the Rajya Sabha is seen as a tactical move by the BJP to strengthen its position in the Jat heartland of Haryana ahead of the crucial state assembly elections — especially after it became evident during the parliamentary polls that the farming community, mostly Jats, largely oppose the ruling party.
This is the second time that Choudhry will be contesting for the Rajya Sabha. In June 2004, when Om Prakash Chautala was the chief minister, the Congress fielded Choudhry for the Rajya Sabha elections. But her hopes were dashed after the Speaker disqualified six MLAs supporting her candidature under the anti-defection law.
Hemant Kumar, an advocate of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, told ThePrint that Chautala had fielded his son, Ajay Chautala, for one seat and had announced his support for an Independent, Tarlochan Singh, for the other seat in those elections. After the disqualification of the six MLAs, Tarlochan Singh won the second Rajya Sabha seat.
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BJP facing anti-incumbency
Choudhry, the daughter-in-law of former Haryana chief minister Bansi Lal, had resigned from the Congress to join the BJP along with her daughter, former MP Shruti Choudhry, in June this year, just days after Narendra Modi was sworn in as prime minister for the third time. She was upset by Congress refusing to give the ticket for the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat Shruti — which she had won in 2009, but unsuccessfully contested for in 2014 and 2019.
Devesh Kumar, a researcher at the Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) said that ahead of the assembly elections, the BJP seemed to be eyeing the Jat votes in Choudhry’s Tosham assembly seat in particular as well as other seats in Bhiwani district, where Bansi Lal’s family has a clout. The elections will be held in a single phase on 1 October and the results will be announced on 4 October.
“The BJP has been in power in Haryana for the past 10 years and hence the party is facing anti-incumbency. The ruling party has made a plethora of announcements after the Lok Sabha polls, announcing sops for various sections of society, but the party as well as its local leaders are facing anti-incumbency,” said Kumar.
“The Congress has an edge even though the party is plagued by factionalism, with Bhupinder Singh Hooda on one side and Selja, Randeep Surjewala, and Birender Singh on the other. In such a scenario, the BJP may hope for some benefit by nominating Kiran Choudhry to the Rajya Sabha but I don’t think there will be any significant gains,” he said.
Carrying forward Bansi Lal’s legacy
Choudhry carries the political lineage of a respected leader and the weight of a legacy that has shaped the state’s politics for decades.
Bansi Lal, her father-in-law, is a towering figure in the state’s political landscape. The three-time Haryana chief minister (1968 to 1975, 1986 to 1987 and 1996 to 1999) was instrumental in modernising the state’s infrastructure, played a key role in its development and is often called the architect of Haryana.
The third chief minister after Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma and Rao Birender Singh, Bansi Lal was considered a hard taskmaster for development works, a strict administrator and sometimes stubborn when it came to taking tough decisions and following through.
He is credited with bringing canal water to desert areas of his home district, Bhiwani, through the use of lift irrigation techniques, as well as building a network of roads in Haryana — which had been carved out as a new state just two years before he took over.
Bansi Lal is always remembered as the first of the three famous Lals of Haryana politics, which also included former deputy prime minister Devi Lal and three-time CM Bhajan Lal.
Pawan Kumar Bansal, the author of Haryana Ke Lalon Ke Sabrange Kisse, a book on the humourous side of the three Lals, told ThePrint that Bansi Lal used to say, “Sadkon ke mod aur mastero ki maror mujhe pasand nahi” (I don’t like twists on the roads or the arrogance of teachers).
“Bansi Lal had a long brush with schoolteachers, who launched one of the biggest agitations against the state government during his term. He had transferred all teachers to faraway places on the plea that they don’t do any teaching when posted in their home places. Also, wherever he found unnecessary twists in the roads, he would get that removed by straightening the roads,” Bansal said.
Bansal said that IAS officers did not dare tell Bansi Lal something was not possible because he would immediately transfer officers who found any work difficult to accomplish.
However, during his last term as CM from 1996 to 1998, he was a different Bansi Lal. He had to quit office before the completion of his term after a revolt within his Haryana Vikas Party and the withdrawal of the BJP’s support.
“Due to the imposition of the prohibition by the HVP-BJP government, the fiscal condition of the state was in bad shape during his last term, greatly impacting the development works, including the condition of roads and availability of electricity to people. The allegations of trafficking of liquor by those close to the government adversely affected the government’s reputation further,” said Bansal.
Choudhry never lost any elections in Haryana
Choudhry has never lost any elections since she entered Haryana politics in 2005.
She left politics in Delhi for Haryana after a chopper crash killed her husband Surender Singh, a minister. Choudhry served as a minister in Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s Cabinets during his two terms between 2005 and 2014.
In active politics for over three decades, Choudhry contested her first election as a Congress candidate from Delhi Cantt in 1993 but lost to Karan Singh Tanwar of the BJP. In 1998, she defeated Tanwar and went on to become the deputy Speaker of the Delhi Vidhan Sabha.
In 2003, she again lost the Delhi Cantt seat to Tanwar, but fate forced her to shift base to Haryana in 2005.
However, Choudhry has never enjoyed a close relationship with Hooda, partly due to her political ambitions and her proximity to the top leadership within the Congress.
Initially, she travelled across Haryana to connect with her late husband’s supporters, but over time, her influence became more localised, primarily within her Tosham assembly constituency and neighbouring seats in the Bhiwani district.
After the 2014 assembly elections, she was appointed leader of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP). However, most of the MLAs elected at the time were loyal to Hooda, leaving her with little support within the CLP.
Even during her current term (2019 to 2024), Choudhry had limited cooperation with Hooda, the leader of the Opposition and CLP leader. Instead, she allied with senior Congress leaders Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala, forming a faction popularly known as the “SRK camp” — derived from the initials of the three leaders.
The final blow to her relationship with the Congress seemed to have come when the party denied her daughter, Shruti, the opportunity to contest from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, choosing to give the ticket to Rao Dan Singh, a Hooda loyalist.
With Choudhry’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha, the BJP has now brought under its umbrella the descendants of all the three politically important Lals. Devi Lal’s son Ranjit Singh is a minister in Haryana and contested Lok Sabha poll from Hisar. Bhajan Lal’s son Kuldeep Bishnoi is member of the state election committee of the party, while grandson Bhavya Bishnoi is an MLA.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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