Former Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Haryana OBC Morcha president Karan Dev Kamboj on Friday (September 13, 2024) joined the Congress, accusing the saffron party of treating the backward community as a mere vote bank but not willing to give rights to them.
One of the first Haryana BJP leaders to resign from all party posts soon after the party released its first list of candidates on September 4, Mr. Kamboj, in his resignation letter, had alleged that the party had given up the ideals of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Dr. Syama Prasad Mukherjee and preferred the traitors.
His resignation just days before the Assembly election could harm the BJP’s electoral prospects along its stronghold GT Karnal Road belt comprising Kurukshetra, Yamuna Nagar, Karnal, and Panipat districts, especially with the saffron party banking heavily on the OBC votes in these areas.
Joining the Congress along with his supporters in the presence of party president Udai Bhan and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Mr. Kamboj said the BJP did not respect the public as well as its own workers and leaders. He said the Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes would unite to destroy the arrogance of BJP and form the Congress government with a huge majority.
Welcoming him and others to the party’s fold, Mr. Hooda said they all had taken the right decision at the right time. “Through its decisions and policies, the BJP has made it clear that it suffered from anti-SC and anti-OBC mentality. That is why its biggest OBC leader had to quit the party. With the entry of Karan Dev Kamboj and his colleagues, the movement of change going on against the BJP will be strengthened,” he said.
Mr. Kamboj was seeking BJP ticket from either Indri or Radaur assembly constituencies. The BJP fielded turncoat Shyam Singh Rana and Ram Kumar Kashyap from Radaur and Indri respectively. Taking a dig at BJP for fielding a turncoat, Mr. Kamboj, in his resignation, had said the party probably did not need loyalists any more. In one of his viral videos post-resignation Mr. Kamboj snubbed Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini who had gone to placate him and refused to shake hands with him.
Published - September 13, 2024 08:31 pm IST
