Chandigarh, Aug 27 (IANS): Four-time legislator and Congress rebel Kiran Choudhry was on Tuesday elected unopposed for the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Haryana as a BJP nominee.
On Kiran being elected, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said she would emerge as a strong voice for Haryana's interests in the Upper House. “I am confident that your decades of political experience will benefit the state and the country,” he wrote on X.
On the day of filing nomination papers, she had said she had given 45 years to the Congress and now “till her last breath would advocate for the policies of the BJP”.
She won the seat unopposed as the main opposition Congress had declared that it would not be fielding a candidate. Tuesday was the last day for the candidates to withdraw their nominations.
The bypoll was necessitated after Congress leader Deepender Singh Hooda was elected to the Lok Sabha from Rohtak in June. The term of this seat ends on April 9, 2026.
kiran switched sides two months ago after quitting the Congress.
Talking to the media after filing her papers, she had said, “It’s my luck that I got the opportunity to join the BJP to serve the country and my state. Our family has old ties with the BJP. Chaudhary Bansi Lal formed the government in the state with the BJP.”
Kiran Choudhry is the daughter-in-law of former Chief Minister Bansi Lal, who is known as the ‘architect’ of modern-day Haryana. She was upset with the Congress as her daughter Shruti was denied a ticket to contest the last Lok Sabha polls from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh.
She is the wife of the late Surender Singh.
Kiran Choudhry, who often described former Chief Minister and Union minister Manohar Lal Khattar as her “bade bhai” (elder brother), thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Saini and Khattar for giving her the opportunity to serve the party. “Influenced by policies of PM Modi and former (Haryana) CM Manohar Lal, I have joined the BJP.”
Kiran Choudhry was elected as MLA of the Congress from Tosham in Bhiwani in 2019. She resigned from the primary membership of the Congress, saying the state unit of the party was being run as a “personal fiefdom”, indirectly referring to former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda.