Haryana politics: Back in Congress, Birender calls it return of ideology

A day after quitting the BJP, former Union minister Birender Singh on Tuesday joined the Congress along with his wife, Prem Lata, who is a former Haryana MLA. The couple made the switch almost a month after their son and former Hisar MP Brijendra Singh joined the Congress.
Birender Singh was welcomed into the party fold at the Congress headquarters in the national capital in the presence of leaders, including former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Kumari Selja, Kiran Chaudhary, Randeep Surjewala and Pawan Khera.
Speaking at the event, Birender Singh said that his return to the Congress is the “return of the ideology”. “We are here because we have stood stronger with the people of Haryana and they too have supported us. In the last 10 years, you (BJP) did not make anybody your own. I will say that it is not only ‘ghar wapsi’ but ‘vichardhara ki wapsi (return of ideology)’.”
Birender Singh was the Union steel minister in the first government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also held charge as minister of rural development, panchayati raj, and drinking water and sanitation.
He had also served as a minister in the Congress government led by Hooda in Haryana.
Brijendra Singh, the son of Birender Singh, resigned from the Lok Sabha and the BJP and joined the Congress last month, citing “compelling political reasons”.
In the past, the father-son duo had often defied the BJP’s stand on several issues.
In 2020, they sided with the protesting farmers to demand the withdrawal of the now-repealed farm laws. Both leaders expressed solidarity with wrestlers protesting against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over allegations of sexual harassment.
After resigning from the BJP, Brijendra Singh had said that the party’s decision to ally with the Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) was also one of the reasons for his exit.
Brijendra had defeated Chautala by more than two lakh votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when the BJP swept the state, winning all 10 seats.
However, a few months later in the assembly elections, the JJP chief defeated Brijendra’s mother Prem Lata by more than 40,000 votes from Uchana Kalan.
Following the elections, the BJP allied with the JJP, a move that did not go down well as the contenders for the Hisar seat began to grow, especially with the induction of former Hisar MP Kuldeep Bishnoi into the BJP in 2023.
Birender Singh resigned from the Upper House in 2020 after Brijendra, a 1998-batch IAS officer who opted for voluntary retirement to enter politics, was elected Hisar MP.
The Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress, both part of the opposition INDIA bloc, will contest in alliance in Haryana. According to the agreement, the AAP will contest Kurukshetra, while the Congress will contest the remaining nine seats in the state.
The state will go to the polls on May 25 and results will be declared on June 4.