Kiran Choudhry & her daughter join BJP a day after quitting Congress

New Delhi, June 19 (IANS) Former Haryana Congress leader Kiran Choudhry and her daughter Shruti Choudhry on Wednesday joined the BJP here, saying she would “work tirelessly to ensure the party returns to power in the state for a third time in a row”.

Kiran, 69, and her daughter and ex-MP Shruti Choudhry took the BJP membership in the presence of Union Minister and former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, among others.

“Today, I took this decision because the Prime Minister has pledged to a developed India by 2047. I have full faith that India will shine in the world. The public welfare work done by the Prime Minister has led to the formation of a BJP government in Delhi for the third time. I have worked a lot with Khattarji. There used to be a lot of bitterness between us. But the way he worked has been my source of inspiration,” Kiran said after joining the BJP.

Both resigned from the primary membership of the Congress on Tuesday, saying the state unit of the party was being run as a "personal fiefdom", in an obvious reference to former Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda.

Kiran Choudhry was elected a legislator from Tosham four times in a row -- 2005 (bypoll), 2009, 2014 and 2019.

In a letter to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, she said, "It is most unfortunate that the Congress in Haryana is being run as the personal fiefdom leaving no space for sincere voices like mine, who have been stifled, humiliated and conspired against in a most well-orchestrated and systematic manner, thus, significantly hampering my diligent efforts to represent our people and uphold the values I have always stood for.”

A prominent Jat leader and the daughter-in-law of former Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal, Kiran Choudhry was also reportedly upset over the denial of a ticket to her daughter Shruti Choudhry for the Bhiwani-Mahindergarh Lok Sabha seat.

Since then, Kiran Choudhry has been quite vocal and critical of the functioning of Bhupinder Hooda.

Shruti Choudhry was the Working President of the Haryana unit of the Congress.

At a poll rally during the recent Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi reportedly had to intervene in a spat between Kiran Choudhry and Congress leader Rao Dan Singh, a Hooda loyalist who unsuccessfully contested the elections from Bhiwani-Mahindergarh.