Decode Politics: How Congress veteran Kiran Choudhry’s switch to BJP may play out in Haryana ahead of polls

Days after a below-par performance in the Lok Sabha elections in Haryana, the state BJP got a shot in the arm as Tosham MLA and ex-minister Kiran Choudhry and her daughter Shruti Choudhry, one of the working presidents of the state Congress, joined the ruling party on Wednesday. Both Kiran and Shruti had resigned from the Congress on Tuesday.

The daughter-in-law of former Haryana chief minister Bansi Lal, Kiran, 69, has been at odds with senior Congress leader and ex-CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Here is a look at the political implications of Kiran’s move for both the BJP and the Congress in the run-up to the state Assembly polls slated for October this year.

What are Haryana Cong equations?

The state Congress is broadly divided into two rival factions – the Hooda group and the “SRK (Kumari Selja, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Kiran Choudhry)” camp. While Hooda’s clout has been on the rise with the Congress leadership having appointed his loyalist Udai Bhan as the state party chief, its rival faction has launched a parallel campaign to hold out in state politics.

The Hooda-Kiran feud started in 2008 when the then CM Hooda divested her of the environment portfolio, but had to reverse his decision within 24 hours after the party high command intervened.

The relations between the two leaders further soured in 2022 after the Hooda camp blamed Kiran for an “invalid vote” in the Rajya Sabha polls which led to the defeat of Congress candidate Ajay Maken.

Their differences boiled over after the Congress preferred Rao Dhan Singh, a Hooda loyalist, over Shruti for the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh seat in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

As the talk about Kiran’s exit from the Congress started gaining momentum, Selja seemed to back her. “Kiran’s