Kuldeep Bishnoi, who resigned as Haryana MLA on Wednesday, 3 August, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with his wife Renuka at the party's national headquarters in Delhi on Thursday.
The duo joined the party in the presence of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and BJP general secretary Arun Singh.
Bishnoi, who was expelled from the Congress after he cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls in June, had submitted his resignation to the Haryana Assembly speaker a day ago.
After joining the BJP on Thursday, Bishnoi took to Twitter to say, "Impressed by the policies of successful Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji who has built a new India with his visionary and great thinking, and respected Shri Manohar Lal Khattar ji, who has done a great job as the Chief Minister of Haryana, today at the BJP Headquarters in New Delhi. Joined the Party."
Bishnoi with BJP national president JP Nadda
(Photo: PTI/Manvender Vashist Lav)
Speaking to reporters after joining the saffron party, Bishnoi said that he had been thinking of joining the BJP for a long time but had kept the idea on hold as he wanted to give the Congress one more chance.
"But what can one do if Congress is in a self-destruction mode?" he said.
Bishnoi further said that Congress has completely diverted from the ideology the party had during the regime of late Congress leaders Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. "If they want to fight BJP once again, they will have to revive that ideology," he said.
The four-time MLA and two-time MP has been unhappy with the Congress since he was passed over for the post of the party's Haryana unit chief during a reshuffle earlier this year.
"Congress also has rules for some leaders and exceptions for others. Rules are applied selectively. Indiscipline has been repeatedly ignored in the past. In my case, I listened to my soul and acted on my morals…" the Haryana politician had said after he was removed from all party positions on 11 June.
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