New Delhi:

In a major development, Olympian wrestler Bajrang Punia was appointed the Working Chairman of the All India Kisan Congress on Friday.

“Hon’ble Congress President has approved the proposal of the appointment of Shri Bajrang Punia as the Working Chairman of All India Kisan Congress with immediate effect,” read the official letter issued by Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal.

Thanking Congress President Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and K.C. Venugopal for the new role assigned to him, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist said in a post on X: “I would like to thank our President Mr. @kharge, Leader of the Opposition @RahulGandhi, and @kcvenugopalmp for entrusting me with this significant responsibility. I will strive to stand shoulder to shoulder with farmers facing crises, supporting their struggles, and work as a dedicated soldier of the organisation. Jai Kisan.”

The appointment, which followed Punia and his fellow wrestler Vinesh Phogat joining the Congress on Friday afternoon, is being seen as a significant move in light of the upcoming Assembly elections in Haryana scheduled on October 5.

The grappler duo met Congress President Kharge at his residence on Friday afternoon before formally joining the party at its headquarters in Delhi.

“Chak de India, Chak de Haryana! Met our talented champions Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, who have made India proud in the world, at 10, Rajaji Marg. We are proud of both of you,” Kharge posted on X after the meeting.

Both the Olympians, who were prominent faces of last year’s protests against alleged sexual assault and intimidation of female wrestlers by ex-Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, had met Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday.

Speaking at the party office after joining the Congress, Phogat said it is only when times are bad that people know who is really standing with them.

Punia said the Congress backed the wrestlers during their protest without even being asked to do so, while the BJP MPs ignored the letters seeking their support.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The BJP is ready to contest polls tomorrow, asserted senior leader Anil Vij after his party faced opposition criticism for seeking to defer the September 1 polls. The party, in its defense, cited long holidays before and after the election date that it said could adversely affect the voter turnout.

Anil Vij, a former Haryana Home Minister, said that the BJP recently held a marathon meeting that lasted two days and sent the names of three to four probable nominees for every seat in the 90-member state Assembly to the Central Election Committee, underscoring that the party is ready.

Haryana polls would be held in a single phase on October 1. The votes will be counted on October 4.

“The declared dates make it possible for people to take extended holidays, which reduces voter turnout. Congress has reacted today, but we are not just asking for an extension. We suggest moving the dates back by a few days to prevent a long holiday period. We are ready for elections. Our party is ready. Have it tomorrow,” said Mr Vij.

Ambala: Haryana’s former Home Minister Anil Vij says, “The declared dates make it possible for people to take extended holidays, which reduces voter turnout. Congress has reacted today, but we are not just asking for an extension. We suggest moving the dates back by a few days to… pic.twitter.com/PLckYZNO42

— IANS (@ians_india) August 25, 2024

The BJP, which has been in power in state for a decade, is not alone in making this request. Abhay Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has also sought the deferment of polls.

If the Election Commission agrees, it won’t be the first time. There is Punjab precedent.

In 2022, the poll body changed the date of polling for the Punjab assembly elections from February 14 to 20, after various political parties requested the six-day postponement, citing the birth anniversary of Sant Ravidas.

In his letter to the poll body, then Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi wrote that at least 20 lakh followers of Guru Ravidas from Punjab would congregate at Varanasi from 10 to 16 February to mark his birth anniversary, due to which they might not be able to vote.

However, the Congress this time sees it differently. Senior party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the BJP had “accepted defeat” by requesting to postpone the Assembly election date, asserting that the people were ready to throw out the incumbent government.

“Polls should be held according to the date fixed by the EC… People of Haryana don’t want to see the BJP government in power even for a day,” said Bhupinder Hooda, a former Chief Minister.

Bhupinder Hooda’s son and Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda said the request shows “how scared the BJP is of the elections”.

The Aam Admi Party, which is contesting on its own in all seats, said if the BJP had done work in the state, it would not have been seeking postponement of polls.

The BJP points out that it is up for a contest and its worry is that holidays before and after the poll date may hit the voting percentage.

“We have reasoned that the Assembly election date of October 1 (Tuesday) is preceded by a weekend and followed by more holidays which might hit the voting percentage as people tend to go on vacation on long weekends,” said Varinder Garg, a member of the BJP’s state election management committee.

Mr Garg said September 28-29 are Saturday and Sunday while October 1 is a poll holiday.

It is followed by more holidays as Gandhi Jayanti falls on October 2 and Maharaja Agrasen Jayanti on October 3, he said.

A letter in this respect was sent by the party’s Haryana unit chief Mohan Lal Badoli to the poll panel.

By taking a day’s leave on September 30, people will have six holidays. Due to this long weekend, there is a strong possibility that several families might go on a vacation and give voting a miss, Mohan Lal Badoli, BJP Haryana chief said in his letter to the poll body, adding that it might affect voting percentage drastically.

New Delhi:

The Congress – boosted by strong results in May’s Haryana Lok Sabha election, in which it won five of the state’s 10 seats – faced a setback Wednesday after two senior leaders jumped ship to the BJP.

Kiran Choudhary, a four-time MLA from the Tosham Assembly constituency, and her daughter Shruti, the ex-Bhiwani-Mahendragarh MP, joined the BJP this afternoon in the presence of Union Minister and former Chief Minister ML Khattar and his successor, Nayab Singh Saini.

The BJP’s newest recruits in the state told reporters they would “work tirelessly to ensure the party returns to power in the state for a third time in a row”. Mrs Choudhary declared she took this decision “because Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) has pledged to a developed India by 2047”.

“I have worked a lot with Khattarji. There used to be a lot of bitterness between us… but the way he worked has been my source of inspiration,” she also said, heaping praise on her new colleagues.

पुत्र-मोह और राजनीतिक जागीरदारी के खिलाफ मजबूत आवाज उठाने वाली हरियाणा के पूर्व मुख्यमंत्री स्वर्गीय बंसीलाल जी की बहू कांग्रेस की दिग्गज नेत्री @officekiran जी और उनकी बेटी (पूर्व सांसद) @Shruti4Progress जी का भाजपा परिवार में स्वागत है।
आज केंद्रीय मंत्री श्री @mlkhattar जी और… pic.twitter.com/vDLmuiYNjV

— Haryana BJP (@BJP4Haryana) June 19, 2024

The two quit the Congress 24 hours earlier; in a letter to party boss Mallikarjun Kharge, Mrs Choudhary said, “It is most unfortunate that Congress in Haryana is being run as a personal fiefdom (seen as a jibe at ex-Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda) leaving no space for sincere voices… who have been stifled..”

READ | In Jolt To Congress, Haryana MLA And Daughter To Join BJP Today

Sources have said Mrs Choudhary and Ms Choudhary’s jump was because the latter was denied a ticket to contest the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat in this election. The seat was won by Shruti Choudhary in 2009 but has been held by the BJP’s Dharambir Singh Chaudhary since.

मैंने कांग्रेस की प्राथमिक सदस्यता से त्यागपत्र दे दिया है।

हरियाणा के जनक चौ.बंसीलाल जी के संस्कारों व विचारधारा को हरियाणा में प्रसारित करना और
क्षेत्र एवं प्रदेश का ईमानदारी से विकास करना मेरी हमेशा प्राथमिकता रहेगी! pic.twitter.com/kxtw7PgZMz

— Kiran Choudhry (@officekiran) June 18, 2024

Mr Chaudhary won the 2024 election by beating the Congress’ Dan Yadav, who polled nearly twice the votes and vote share Ms Choudhary claimed in the 2014 and 2019 elections.

Importance Of Kiran, Shruti Choudhary To BJP

That Mrs Choudhary and her daughter have joined (a long) list of politicians swapping the Congress for the BJP is big news, but bigger still is the legacy they bring just months before a state election.

Mrs Choudhary is the daughter-in-law of Bansi Lal, a seven-time MLA, three-time MP, and three-time Haryana Chief Minister, and the patriarch of one of the state’s more influential political clans.

The Tosham seat Mrs Choudhary has held for the Congress since 2005 was her father-in-law’s bastion – he won it five times in three decades. More significantly, it has never been won by the BJP.

The BJP will hope that Mrs Choudhary and her family connections will bring not only the Tosham seat but also a sizeable chunk of Jat votes that the party has been courting for several years, but now seems to be slipping through its fingers as a result of the farmers’ ongoing protests against the centre.

The BJP – at the central and state levels – has been facing flak from Jat voters, who are largely farmers, over various issues, including the demand for legal backing for MSP, or minimum support price.

This includes the Sonipat and Rohtak regions, where some villages even refused to vote during the Lok Sabha election. Sonipat and Rohtak have 18 Assembly segments between them, of which the BJP won only four (post-poll ally JJP got one more) in the last state election, while the Congress swept 12. The BJP could have used those 12 seats after finishing six below the majority mark of 46 in that election.

Signing Mrs Choudhary and her family’s political clout among Jats could also help the BJP overcome the loss of the JJP, its former ally in the state government, which was the party’s Jat card.

Congress Bleeding Leaders Again?

For the Congress the loss is acute, particularly since the party will want to build on impressive Lok Sabha election results to push the BJP out of power in the state poll.

Haryana is a key part of the Hindi heartland that is the BJP’s key support base, and a win here, on the heels of Mr Modi losing seats in other states, particularly Uttar Pradesh, will make a big statement.

Mrs Choudhary and Ms Choudhary aren’t the first Haryana leaders to swap sides in recent years.

In August last year Kuldeep Bishnoi and his wife, Renuka, joined the BJP. Mr Khattar, then the Chief Minister, presided over their induction. Mr Bishnoi, a four-time MLA whom the Congress expelled for cross-voting in a Rajya Sabha poll, had also heaped praise on the PM, whom he called “the best”.

READ | “Narendra Modi Best PM”: Kuldeep Bishnoi Joins Haryana BJP

Like Mrs Choudhary, Mr Bishnoi comes from one of the state’s more influential families; he is the son of ex-Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, credited with building the non-Jat bank now largely with the BJP.

And, like Mrs Choudhary, Mr Bishnoi’s capture was key since his family controls the Adampur Assembly seat that the BJP won for the first time – by his son Bhavya – in a 2022 bypoll.

For the BJP, Mrs Choudhary’s signing completes a trifecta; the party now has senior members from each of Haryana’s three biggest political families; the third was Ranjit Singh Chautala, the son of two-time ex-Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal, who joined in March and is now a state minister.

With input from agencies

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.

The Congress on Thursday appointed five special observers, including former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, for the November 25 Rajasthan Assembly elections.

“The Congress president has approved the proposal for the appointment of Mukul Wasnik, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Jitendra Singh, Shaktisinh Gohil and Shakeel Ahmad Khan as special observers for the ensuing Assembly elections in Rajasthan-2023, with immediate effect,” said a communication from the party.

The Congress is seeking to retain power in the State by bucking the trend of voting out incumbent governments.

The results of the polls to the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly will be declared on December 3.