Gurugram: Brijendra Singh, the Lok Sabha MP from Hisar in Haryana, has bid adieu to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and joined the Congress. What’s even more worrisome for the BJP is that Brijendra’s father Birender Singh is set to take the same path, the former Union minister told ThePrint over the phone after his son was inducted into the Congress Sunday.
Brijendra Singh said he had been feeling uncomfortable within the BJP these past few months owing of differences of opinion with the party on certain issues. These included the agitation by farmers demanding a legal guarantee for MSP, the Agnipath scheme and the central government’s handling of the protest by women wrestlers.
Earlier in the day, the civil servant-turned-politician in a post on X (formerly Twitter) thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior BJP leaders for giving him the opportunity to represent Hisar in the 17th Lok Sabha. He, however, began by saying: “I have resigned from the primary membership of BJP, due to compelling political reasons.”
Hours later, Brijendra Singh reached the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi where he was inducted into the party. The Congress then shared a video on X showing Kharge and other senior leaders welcoming Singh to the party.
A 1998-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre, Brijendra Singh took voluntary retirement to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Hisar. He went on to defeat Jannayak Janta Party’s Dushyant Chautala and Bhavya Bishnoi, who was then with the Congress.
Following his election from Hisar, his father Birender Singh — who was a Union minister during Modi’s first term from 2014 to 2019 — resigned from the Rajya Sabha in January 2020. It was said at the time that he had resigned in line with the party’s policy of ‘one family, one post’, which it failed to apply to some other members of its party.
A veteran Congressman and the maternal grandson of peasant leader Sir Chhotu Ram, Birender Singh had switched loyalty to the BJP in August 2014 after the parliamentary polls. Before joining the BJP, Singh had resigned from his Rajya Sabha seat.
He, however, was elected for the remainder of his term as a BJP candidate in 2016, and was re-elected for another term on 11 June, 2016. He resigned as a member of the Upper House in January 2020, more than two years before the completion of his term.
Known for his plainspokenness, Birender Singh confirmed to The Print over the phone Sunday that his son is joining the Congress, and he too would effect a “homecoming” soon.
“We have taken the decision because of circumstances within the BJP. There is no internal democracy in the BJP. One can’t express one’s views within the party,” said the former Union minister. Asked why he did not join the Congress along with son Brijendra, Birender Singh said he would do so with fanfare along with hundreds of his followers.
Some other Haryana BJP leaders including Captain Abhimanyu and Deputy Speaker Ranbir Gangwa are also believed to be in the queue, sources within the BJP told ThePrint.
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Birender Singh: ‘Tragedy King’ in Haryana politics
In October, Birender Singh issued an ultimatum that he would quit the BJP if it continued its alliance with the JJP in Haryana.
At the same time, he was said to be growing increasingly uncomfortable about the chances of his son and wife Prem Lata securing tickets for the Lok Sabha polls.
Though Brijendra Singh had defeated Dushyant and Bhavya in 2019, JJP is now in alliance with the BJP. To add to that, Bhavya and his father Kuldeep Bishnoi are also now in the BJP.
Under the current circumstances, Birender Singh was not sure of his son getting a Lok Sabha ticket. He was also concerned about his wife getting a ticket for the assembly polls to be held later in the year if the BJP were to continue its alliance with the JJP. Haryana Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala is sitting MLA from her Uchana Kalan constituency.
Be it the farmers’ protest in 2020-21, or the protest by women wrestlers, the father-son duo had spoken their minds even if they were not on the same page as the ruling party.
Addressing public meetings in September, Birender Singh had said that youngsters in Haryana were being forced to leave the country on account of poverty and unemployment.
Hemant Atri, a political analyst, however, said Birender Singh serves as the perfect example of how not to be a politician. “Singh is known by the sobriquet of ‘Tragedy King’ in Haryana politics for the wrong decisions he took. He not only spoiled his political career but is spoiling his son’s political career,” Atri told ThePrint.
The former Union minister should have explained first why he quit the Congress to join the BJP and then explain why he is leaving the BJP now, Atri added.
“He has lost his credibility as well as his legacy — the legacy of being Sir Chhotu Ram’s maternal grandson. Sir Chhotu Ram stood for farmers and Birender Singh was with the BJP when farmers were sitting on roads along Delhi’s borders for 378 days.”
Reacting to the developments, Dushyant Chautala Sunday posted a couplet on X without naming anyone. Translated into English, it goes: “They go from door to door and change their prayers. People themselves do not change themselves but change their God.”
दर-दर पे जाकर दुआ बदलते हैं।
लोग ख़ुद नहीं बदलते, ख़ुदा बदलते हैं।
— Dushyant Chautala (@Dchautala) March 10, 2024
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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