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Upset with the Congress party after her daughter and former MP Shruti Choudhry was denied a party ticket, senior Congress leader and MLA from Tosham Kiran Choudhry on Tuesday quit the party. She is likely to join BJP on Wednesday.

Kiran has also sent her resignation letter to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge. A four-time MLA, Kiran is the daughter-in-law of former Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal. Her daughter Shruti, who also resigned from the party, was one of the four working presidents of the Haryana Congress. The development comes just months before assembly elections in Haryana.

In her letter to Kharge, She stated: “I tender my resignation from the primary membership of INC. I have been a loyal and steadfast member of the Congress party for the last four decades and have over these years, devoted my life to the party and the people whom I represent. It is most unfortunate that the Congress party in Haryana is being run as the personal fiefdom, leaving no space for sincere voices like mine.” Kiran has alleged that she was ignored during the recent Lok Sabha elections.

Kiran, was reportedly upset with former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda over the denial of Lok Sabha ticket to Shruti. She wanted the Lok Sabha ticket for her daughter from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh parliamentary seat. The Congress fielded Hooda loyalist Rao Dan Singh in Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, who lost the poll to BJP's Dharambir Singh Chaudhary. After defeat, Kiran said that if the tickets were distributed properly, then Congress could have won the election from here.

 The Congress has faced this jolt at a time when the party has performed well in Haryana, winning five out of nine Lok Sabha seats in the state recently. The Congress increased its vote share and tally in the recent Lok Sabha elections. The Congress-led INDIA bloc in the state maintained a lead in 46 assembly seats while leaving 44 seats for the ruling BJP during the parliamentary polls.

Two days ago, she held a press conference in Bhiwani and hinted at leaving the party. “This is true that the Congress could have won more seats in the Lok Sabha had the Congress in-charge Deepak Babaria ensured better ticket allocation,” she had said.

Earlier in 2022, the Hooda camp had openly accused Kiran Choudhry, along with Kuldeep Bishnoi, who was then in the Congress, of causing the defeat of Congress candidate Ajay Maken in the Rajya Sabha elections. However, Kiran had rubbished the allegations. At that time, BJP leaders speculated that she might join the saffron party. However, she insisted, “I am not going anywhere. A lot of my well-wishers in the party want me to leave, but these well-wishers should know that Kiran Choudhry is not among those who run away.

Kiran Choudhry had been an MLA from Delhi before she entered Haryana politics following the death of her husband and Bansi Lal’s son, Surender Singh, in a helicopter crash in 2005. Surender Singh was then a minister in the Hooda government. She is now a four-time MLA from Tosham (Bhiwani). She has also been facing allegations of sabotage by the Congress Bhiwani-Mahendragarh MLA Rao Dan Singh.

With the joining of Kiran Choudhry, the BJP would have members from all three of Haryana’s famous political Lal families: Bansi Lal, Bhajan Lal, and Devi Lal. Bhajan Lal’s son, Kuldeep Bishnoi, joined the BJP in 2022, with Kuldeep’s son later winning the family’s pocket borough Adampur on the BJP ticket. From Devi Lal’s family, the BJP has his son, Ranjit Singh Chautala, who is the state power minister in the Haryana government.