Chandigarh: Senior Haryana politician Kuldeep Bishnoi, who quit the Congress to join the BJP in August 2022, Friday threw his hat in the ring for nomination from the Hisar parliamentary seat in next year’s election.
During a tour of villages in his family’s pocket borough Adampur, represented by his son Bhavya Bishnoi, Bishnoi announced that he would contest from Hisar — of which Adampur is a part — if the party allows it.
Hisar is currently represented by Brijendra Singh of the BJP, who won the seat in 2019 by defeating Dushyant Chautala of the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and Bhavya Bishnoi, then with the Congress.
Now, the JJP is part of the ruling alliance with the BJP, although a tie-up for 2024 has not been finalised yet. Hisar is said to be one of the prominent factors hindering alliance talks.
Brijendra Singh and his father, former Union Minister Birender Singh, have opposed the continuation of the BJP-JJP tie-up because of Dushyant’s claim to Hisar as well as Birender Singh’s traditional assembly seat, Uchana Kalan (which Dushyant won by defeating Birender Singh’s wife, former MLA Premlata, in 2019).
All three come from prominent political families and the contest for Hisar is likely to emerge as an interesting one to watch.
Contacted by ThePrint on his mobile phone, Bishnoi confirmed his desire to contest the 2024 parliamentary poll from Hisar.
“Hisar parliamentary seat is special for my family because our traditional Adampur assembly constituency is part of this since the 2009 general elections, the first after the delimitation exercise,” he said.
“Of the four elections (2009, 2011 bypoll, 2014 and 2019) held for Hisar parliamentary seat after the delimitation, my family members have contested all and won twice — my father (former Haryana CM) Chaudhary Bhajan Lal won in 2009 and I won the seat in the byelection necessitated by his death in 2011. Before delimitation, our Adampur constituency was part of the Bhiwani parliamentary seat and I won that too in 2004,” said Bishnoi.
Bishnoi said the people of Hisar had been like his family members ever since the times of Chaudhary Bhajan Lal and “they want me to contest from this seat”.
However, he hastened to add that it was entirely up to the top leadership of the BJP. “Given a chance, I will win this seat by a huge margin,” said Bishnoi.
Bishnoi’s announcement comes close on the heels of his meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on 28 June, where he handed the latter a letter seeking OBC status for the Bishnoi community.
आज मेरे नेता आदरणीय श्री @AmitShah जी से लंबी मुलाक़ात हुई।बेहतरीन व्यक्तित्व के धनी अमित भाई में एक अजीब चुंबकीय शक्ति है जो किसी को भी अपना बना लेती है।हमारे बिश्नोई समाज को केंद्र में #ओबीसी में शामिल करने की प्रार्थना की एवं हरियाणा और राजस्थान पर विस्तार से राजनीतिक चर्चा की pic.twitter.com/EwhsRvXueT
— Kuldeep Bishnoi (@bishnoikuldeep) June 28, 2023
According to a tweet posted by Bishnoi, the two had a “detailed discussion” on Haryana and Rajasthan, both of which are headed for polls.
The Rajasthan assembly polls are scheduled for later this year, and the Bishnoi community is said to influence 20 to 22 of the state’s 200 seats.
Mukam, the most sacred temple for the Bishnoi community, is also situated along Rajasthan’s Bikaner-Jodhpur highway. Bhajan Lal is regarded as the most respected leader of the Bishnoi community in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. Kuldeep Bishnoi has been the patron of the ‘All India Bishnoi Sabha’ since his father’s death.
In organisational appointments made by BJP president J.P. Nadda Friday, the party named Bishnoi as ‘seh prabhari (co-incharge)’ for the Rajasthan polls. Prahlad Joshi was named ‘prabhari’ and Nitin Patel as the other ‘seh prabhari’.
Bishnoi subsequently thanked PM Modi, Shah and Nadda in a tweet.
Also Read: Haryana BJP chief Dhankar says no 2024 pact with JJP ‘as of today’ — it was ‘alliance of compulsion’
Families of political stalwarts
The three 2019 candidates from the Hisar seat — Brijendra Singh, Dushyant Chautala and Bhavya Bishnoi — all come from prominent political families.
Brijendra Singh, who resigned from the IAS to contest the 2019 election, is son of Chaudhary Birender Singh, a grandson of Chhotu Ram, a pre-Independence-era leader considered the tallest Jat leader to date.
Birender Singh has served as cabinet minister in Haryana as well as at the Centre.
Haryana Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala is the great-grandson of former deputy PM Chaudhary Devi Lal, one of the most prominent leaders from Haryana. Devi Lal became Haryana CM in 1977 and 1987 and went on to become deputy PM in 1989. His son Om Prakash Chautala, convicted in a teacher recruitment scam, is also a former CM.
Kuldeep Bishnoi’s father Bhajan Lal was Haryana’s CM from 1979 to 1985, and then again from 1991 to 1996. Bhajan Lal won the Adampur assembly seat for the first time in 1968, and since then the family has won the constituency consecutively in all the 13 elections held so far.
Bhajan Lal won seven elections in a row from 1968 to 2000. Kuldeep Bishnoi won four times in 2005, 2009, 2014 and 2019, his wife Renuka Bishnoi won the seat in a 2012 bypoll, while Bishnoi’s son Bhavya won the 2022 bypoll, which was held after Bishnoi vacated the seat before switching over from the Congress.
Bishnoi’s previous alliance with BJP
When the Congress named Bhupinder Singh Hooda as CM after the 2005 assembly polls in Haryana, overlooking Bhajan Lal’s claim, Bishnoi parted ways with the Congress and floated the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) with his father. This, even as his elder brother Chander Mohan was deputy CM in Hooda’s cabinet.
In the 2009 assembly polls, his party won six seats, but five of the candidates defected to the Congress to support the Hooda government. Before the 2014 polls, the BJP entered into an alliance with the HJC and Bishnoi was the CM face for the alliance. However, the alliance ended after the HJC failed to win a single seat in the 2014 parliamentary polls.
Bishnoi and Renuka were the two MLAs of the HJC who won in 2014. However, Bishnoi merged his party with the Congress in 2016.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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