Former Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal, Haryana Minister and Independent MLA Ranjit Chautala join BJP

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 24

In a major pre-election jolt to the Congress, former two-term party MP Naveen Jindal announced his resignation and joined the BJP seconds later in a late-evening development.

Ranjit Chautala, the son of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal and Independent Rania MLA also joined the saffron party.

Their joining came a day after the BJP’s Central Election Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is learnt to have approved the candidatures if Jindal and Chautala as saffron nominees for the May 25 Lok Sabha election from Haryana’s Kurukshetra and Hisar, respectively.

While BJP’s Kurukshetra MP in the outgoing 17th Lok Sabha Nayab Singh Saini stands elevated as Haryana Chief Minister, Brijendra Singh, who represented Hisar, has since joined the Congress.

After joining the BJP in the presence of national general secretary Vinod Tawde, Jindal expressed his gratitude saying, “Today is a very important day in my life. I am proud to have had the good fortune of joining the BJP and getting an opportunity to contribute to national building under the leadership of PM Modi. I will work on BJP policies to advance the goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047 and will do my best to serve the country under PM’s leadership.”

Tawde said the joining of Jindal, who was Congress Kurukshetra MP in 2004 and 2009, will strengthen the BJP.

Jindal represented Kurukshetra constituency in Lok Sabha between 2004-14.