Haryana Janhit Congress led by Kuldeep Bishnoi has announced merger of the political outfit with the Indian National Congress.
A day after meeting Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Bishnoi announced the merger with Congress. Bishnoi took to Twitter to confirm the merger and posted photographs with Rahul Gandhi besides posting “Met Honourable Rahul Gandhi ji and reposed absolute faith & trust in his able leadership...”
The HJC’s merger with the Congress will be more like a homecoming for Bishnoi after nine years. A formal announcement in this regard would be made in New Delhi on Tuesday following a meeting of HJC office bearers.
Bishnoi’s HJC has two MlAs in the State Assembly. He represents his father’s traditional Adamapur seat of Hisar while his wife, Renuka Bishnoi represents Hansi.
Congress central leadership has already given approval to the merger with HJC, which was started as a breakaway faction of the Congress by Bishnoi’s father former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan lal in the year 2007.
Bhajan lal who served for three terms as Chief Minister of Haryana from 1979 to 1982 and then again in 1991, had floated his own political outfit-HJC in 2007 following a major rift in the state Congress unit which opted for Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a Jat as the Chief Minister instead of Bhajan lal after winning 2005 assembly polls. At that time, the key event that led to Bhajan lal parting ways with the Congress was the suspension of his son Kuldeep Bishnoi from the Congress for criticizing the party’s central leaders.
In the past, HJC had joined hands with Bahujan Samaj Party, Bharatiya Janta Party and Haryana Jan Chetna Party in the state.
While in 2009 lok Sabha polls, HJC joined hands with BSP and won Hisar seat where Bhajan lal emerged as winner. In the 2009 Vidhan Sabha elections, the party had won six seats.
After Bhajan lal’s death on June 3, 2011, Bishnoi took over the reins of the party and his party then made an alliance with the BJP for the 2014 general elections.
Bishnoi won by-election to the Hisar parliamentary seat after his father’s demise while his wife Renuka won Adampur assembly seat.
However, the HJC chief lost to INlD’s Dushyant Chautala in the 2014 parliamentary constituency.
later in 2014, BJP parted ways with Bishnoi before Haryana Assembly polls and Bishnoi had joined hands with the Venod Sharma led Haryana Jan Chetna Party.
Now, as the HJC is all set to merge with Congress, political analysts feel that the merger is likely to give boost to the Congress among non-Jats.
Also, the merger comes at the time when the state unit of Congress is struggling due to infighting. The infighting in the Haryana Congress has escalated recently, among the two factions of party led by state party chief Ashok Tanwar and another faction led by former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Several party MlAs, who are seeking ouster of state party president Ashok Tanwar , have sought time from party president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi to raise their demand.
Meanwhile, BJP and INlD have termed the merger as insignificant for the state.
While Haryana INlD president Ashok Arora said that both Congress and HJC have slipped into oblivion in the state, BJP senior leader and Cabinet Minister Anil Vij said that the merger is insignificant and would not affect the political arena in the State.