Ex-Union Minister Birender Singh quits BJP, to join Congress on Tuesday

CHANDIGARH: Former Union Minister and BJP leader Birender Singh, who was one of the four Cabinet ministers sworn in in the first expansion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Council of Ministers in 2014, resigned from the party on Monday.

Singh will now join the Congress, a party he was previously involved with for over four decades.

“I have resigned from the primary membership of the BJP and sent my resignation to party chief J.P. Nadda. My wife Prem Lata, who was an MLA from 2014-2019, has also quit the party. Tomorrow, we will join the Congress,” he told the media.

A well-known leader from the Jat community, Singh joined the BJP in August 2017, just before the elections to the Haryana Assembly.

Singh’s induction into the Congress is seen as a move to woo the Jat voters in Haryana, Rajasthan, and western Uttar Pradesh.

On March 10, Singh’s son Brijendra resigned as a BJP MP and joined the Congress citing “compelling political reasons”.

Brijendra quit the BJP five months after his father gave an ultimatum to the party at a rally in Jind that he would leave the BJP if it continued an alliance with the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP).

Two days after Brijendra joined the Congress, the BJP snapped its ties with the JJP.