Birender Singh ‘Quits’ to support BJP’s fight

CHANDIGARH: Union steel minister Birender Singh raked up the issue of dynastic succession, an important poll plank for BJP, by announcing resignation from his ministerial berth and the Rajya Sabha on Sunday, soon after his son, an IAS posted in Haryana, Brijendra Singh was named as the saffron candidate for the Hisar parliamentary seat. The saffron party was keen to field Birender Singh, a regional satrap, in the Lok Sabha polls in Haryana but the veteran leader had sought ticket for his son and expressed intentions to hang up his boots few weeks ago.

Anticipating that the move to field son Brijendra Singh, a newcomer in active politics, would dilute the stand on the dynastic succession, the senior leader said he was a votary of not promoting dynastic succession in politics. The union minister, soon after the BJP’s candidate list was out on Sunday, announced that he had sent resignation letter to the BJP chief Amit Shah in order to keep up the party’s stand against dynastic politics. His resignation is being seen as a step to placate aspirants within the party and also an attempt to corner the main contestants Congress and Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana.

Brijendra is pitted against Kuldeep Bishnoi, son of former Haryana CM Bhajan Lal, who had lost to INLD’s Dushyant Chautala in the last general elections. “Brijendra is a winning candidate as his father holds sway in the region,” a party worker from Hisar said.


Stakes are much higher this time for the saffron party as it is contesting on all 10 seats, while in the past it had tied up with regional satraps in seat-sharing arrangements to overcome its lack of prominent Jat leaders.