Birender Singh's Dumerkha village rejoices as he takes oath of office

JIND: Dumerkha village in Haryana's Jind district broke into celebrations today with the induction of Jat leader Birender Singh as a minister in the Narendra Modi government.

As Singh took oath of office, inhabitants of Dumerkha, a nondescript village where he was born on March 25, 1946, took to streets and celebrated the occasion. Jubilant party workers and supporters exchanged greetings and distributed sweets.

People lit their houses, burst crackers and danced to the tunes of dhols and DJ systems.

Birender was for long an aspirant for the post of the Haryana chief minister, but that eluded him during his 42-years association with Congress.

Birender joined BJP in August, 2014, at a political rally at Jind in the presence of the party's president, Amit Shah. The gamble paid off as the party stormed to power in the state and his wife also got elected as an MLA.

When BJP formed its first ever government in Haryana, the state got a non Jat leader Manohar Lal Khattar, a close associate of Modi, as its leader after 18 years.

Political pundits observe that Birender's elevation to cabinet rank has put the sulking Jat leader's political career back on track.