Kuldeep Bishnoi, a former Haryana Congress politician, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday 4th August 2022 at the party’s head office in New Delhi. Manohar Lal Khattar, the Chief Minister of Haryana, welcomed him to the party. Kuldeep Bishnoi was expelled from the Congress party in June 2022 after he cross-voted in favor of a BJP-backed independent candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections held on June 10.
Manohar Lal Khattar, on this occasion, said, “Kuldeep Bishnoi supported PM Modi’s leadership, backed BJP candidate in Rajya Sabha poll. We welcome him.” Kuldeep Bishnoi’s wife Renuka Bishnoi, who was also a member of the Congress party, has also switched to the BJP.
On Wednesday, 3rd August 2022, Bishnoi announced his resignation from the Vidhan Sabha. Bishnoi, son of former Congress stalwart Bhajan Lal, was first ousted from Congress in 2007 when he went on to form his own party, Haryana Janhit Congress (BL). In 2016, he returned to Congress after merging his party with them. He spent six years on good terms with the Congress party before being dismissed in June.
In the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections from Haryana, the Adampur MLA cross-voted, which caused Congress nominee Ajay Maken to lose and opened the way for independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma, who was supported by the BJP and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP). Bishnoi was fired from all party posts the next day.
Congress appointed Udaybhan as the Haryana State Congress President in April 2022. Since then, Bishnoi was angry and did not attend any congress event. He had said that he will take his next political decision only after meeting Rahul Gandhi. Everyone including Congress leader Ajay Maken and the state in-charge Vivek Bansal insisted that he should participate in party activities but things did not work out.