Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Chaudhary Birender Singh meeting BJP President Amit Shah (right)
When Rajya Sabha MP Birendra Singh met BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday, it underscored the growing troubles of the ruling Congress in Haryana, right next to the national capital.
Chaudhary Birendra Singh, a powerful Jat leader, is a Congressman. His closed -door meeting with Mr Shah came even as a state minister quit in rebellion against chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. And sparked speculation that Mr Singh could join the BJP before assembly elections in the state, due later this year.
Haryana's Power Minister Ajay Singh Yadav, a retired Armyman and an influential Ahir leader from the Rewari region, resigned on Tuesday, challenging Mr Hooda's leadership. Captain Yadav warned as he quit, "The party has failed to learn any lessons from the Lok Sabha debacle."
(Read)The Congress posted disastrous results in the general elections - it had won only one of 10 seats, putting extreme pressure on Mr Hooda, whose style of functioning has also been criticised by other Congress leaders from the state.
Birender Singh, too, has revolted openly against Mr Hooda, refusing to contest the state elections under his leadership. Another MP, Rao Inderjeet Singh, had walked out of the Congress last year. He won the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat for the BJP in the general elections and is now a minister in the Narendra Modi government.
Then there is Kumari Selja, a former union minister who refused to contest the Lok Sabha polls and shifted to the Rajya Sabha. After the general elections she had suggested that the chief minister should own responsibility for the debacle and step down.
The BJP, which had won seven seats in the Lok Sabha elections, is hoping to wrest Haryana from the Congress, which has ruled the state for the last 10 years.
The BJP is also reportedly looking to strengthen its base in the state to be able to contest the assembly elections on its own. It has had multiple disagreements with its partner in the state, the Haryana Janhit Congres or HJC led by Kuldeep Bishnoi.