India's richest woman, Savitri Jindal, officially joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday, following her resignation from the Congress party. Her decision to switch parties was announced in a social media post late Wednesday night, where she cited her service to the people of Hisar and her family's advice as reasons for her departure from the Congress. Accompanying her in joining the BJP was her daughter, Seema Jindal.
Savitri Jindal's move comes shortly after her son, Naveen Jindal, also left the Congress to join the BJP. Naveen Jindal, a former Member of Parliament, had represented Kurukshetra for a decade under the Congress banner. Following his switch, the BJP announced that he would contest the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Kurukshetra.
Expressing gratitude to the Congress leadership and former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh for his past tenure, Naveen Jindal stated his resignation from the Congress before joining the BJP at the party headquarters in New Delhi, accompanied by BJP's general secretary Vinod Tawde.
Naveen Jindal's political journey has seen him win the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat twice under the Congress ticket, in 2004 and 2009. However, he faced defeat in 2014 at the hands of BJP's Raj Kumar Saini and chose not to contest in 2019. His father, OP Jindal, and mother, Savitri Jindal, have also held prominent political positions in Haryana.
With the Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held in seven phases over six weeks, from April 19 to June 1, and results to be announced on June 4, the Jindal family's political shift adds an intriguing dimension to the electoral landscape.
