New Delhi: MP from Haryana’s Hisar Lok Sabha constituency Brijendra Singh left the BJP citing “compelling political reasons” on Sunday (March 10). He has joined the Congress party.
Singh joined the Congress on Sunday following a visit to party president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence in Delhi.
At a press conference held by the Congress on Sunday, Singh said he decided to quit the BJP following disagreements on issues such as those of farmers, the Agniveer program and of the country’s women wrestlers.
A report by NDTV said that Congress sources hinted the party would likely field Singh as its candidate from Hisar in the upcoming general election.
According to his india.gov profile, Singh is a former bureaucrat of the Indian Administrative Service. He voluntarily resigned in 2019 and won the Lok Sabha poll from Hisar on a BJP ticket with a little over 51% of the vote share.
His closest contestant was the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP)’s Dushyant Chautala, who is now Haryana’s deputy chief minister.
Singh’s father Birender Singh, who was Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana between 2016 and 2020, “may also join the Congress later”, the Indian Express reported citing sources close to the senior Singh.
Birender Singh opposed the idea of an alliance between the BJP and JJP on Tuesday, the Times of India reported. According to the Express, he threatened in October to leave the BJP if it continued allying with the JJP.
West Bengal MP resigns from BJP, says will not join another party
In West Bengal, MP from the Jhargram constituency Kunar Hembram quit the BJP on Friday citing personal reasons.
“I want to leave my party for personal reasons. It is not like … the party will suffer a loss or its work will get stuck if I move away. The BJP is a national party. It is famous all over the world. So the party’s future doesn’t depend on an individual,” the Deccan Herald quoted him as saying.
Hembram also said he did not have plans to join a different party and said he wanted to leave politics to “do [his] pending work which includes social activities”.
The party’s West Bengal chief Sukanta Majumdar told ThePrint that Hembram had informed him that “health is not good and he won’t be able to work for the party”.
“He hadn’t been active for quite some time now,” Majumdar added.
Hembram won the Jhargram seat in 2019 with 44.56% of the vote share.
