Photo Source: Kiran Chaudhary's Facebook account
20 years ago, Kiran Chaudhary missed becoming Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana, says HC Advocate
The defeat was due to the termination of membership of 6 MLAs by the then speaker of the assembly Satbir Kadian
Babushahi Bureau
Chandigarh, June 19, 2024: Hemant Kumar, Advocate in Punjab and Haryana High Court shared that exactly 20 years ago, in June 2004, when the INLD government was in power in Haryana under the leadership of Om Prakash Chautala, Kiran Chaudhary, who was made the Congress party's candidate in the biennial election for 2 Rajya Sabha seats in the state.
Kiran Chaudhary, daughter-in-law of former Haryana Chief Minister Chaudhary Bansi Lal, who is also a Congress MLA from Tosham Assembly seat of Bhiwani district in the current 14th Haryana Assembly, today joined the BJP along with her daughter and former MP from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat, Shruti Chaudhary, who was also the working president of Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee for the last two years. Last evening, both of them had resigned from the primary membership of the Congress.
"However, there are speculations that BJP may make Kiran or Shruti the party candidate for the by-election to be held in the coming days for a Rajya Sabha seat from Haryana which has recently fallen vacant for 2 years, although no official announcement has been made in this regard. Whatever it may be, Kiran and Shruti leaving the party and joining BJP is definitely a loss for the state Congress which was buoyed after winning 5 Lok Sabha seats from Haryana two weeks ago," said Advocate Hemant Kumar.
Hemant Kumar shared that 20 years ago, in June 2004, when the INLD government was in power in Haryana under the leadership of Om Prakash Chautala, Kiran Chaudhary, who was made the Congress party's candidate in the biennial election for 2 Rajya Sabha seats in the state, missed getting elected because three days before the voting, the then speaker of Haryana Assembly Satbir Singh Kadian, who was also an MLA from INLD, had disqualified 6 MLAs Jagjit Sangwan, Karan Singh Dalal, Bhim Sen Mehta, Jai Prakash Gupta, Rajinder Bisla and Dev Raj Dewan, who were supporting Kiran Chaudhary, from being members of the Haryana Assembly under the anti-defection law.
"Despite Kiran challenging the Speaker's decision in the Supreme Court, the 6 disqualified MLAs did not get the right to vote in the Rajya Sabha elections, the result of which was that Sardar Trilochan Singh, who was contesting as an independent with the support of INLD, won the election while Kiran lost the election. On the other hand, Dr. Ajay Chautala, the elder son of O.P. Chautala and father of former Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, was elected from the second seat of Rajya Sabha," he added.
Hemant also told that Kiran Chaudhary contested the first election of NCT (National Capital Territory) Delhi Assembly in 1993 from Delhi Cantt Assembly seat on Congress ticket in which she lost to Karan Singh Tanwar of BJP. Five years later in 1998, Kiran defeated BJP's Tanwar from the same seat and became MLA for the first time and also became Deputy Speaker in the Assembly. However, in the 2003 elections, Kiran again lost to BJP's Tanwar, after which she completely moved from Delhi to Haryana and after the death of her husband Surendra Singh in March 2005, she won four consecutive Assembly elections from Tosham Assembly seat and was first a Minister of State and then a Cabinet Minister during both the Congress governments of Bhupendra Hooda.