Hisar, August 28: Savitri Jindal, 74, the richest woman in India and the head of the Jindal Group, is getting ready to run for election in the Hisar Assembly constituency on the BJP ticket. Kamal Gupta, the two-term sitting MLA who defeated Jindal in the 2014 Assembly elections, would suffer if the party chooses her.
Savitri Jindal, 74, the richest woman in India and the head of the Jindal Group, is getting ready to run for election in the Hisar Assembly constituency on the BJP ticket
According to people close to the Jindal family, she has expressed her desire to run for party leadership. The two-time Hisar MLA (in elections in 2005 and 2009), who was also a minister in the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government, was defeated by Dr. Kamal Gupta of the BJP in the 2014 Assembly election.
But things changed drastically when she left the Congress in March of this year and joined the BJP. Her son Naveen Jindal, a two-term Congress MP from Kurukshetra (2004 and 2009), also joined the BJP, which also fielded him from Kurukshetra in the most recent General Election and he won by defeating Sushil Gupta of the AAP.
Lalit Sharma, a close aide of the Jindal House, said Savitri ji was prepared to run for office if the party decided to field her. She had been staying in Hisar for several days and had been meeting with people every day, he said.
Savitri Jindal entered politics following her husband Om Prakash Jindal’s death in a helicopter accident in 2005 while he was serving as a minister in the Hooda-led Congress government in the state
She had conveyed her wish to contest to the party high command, an insider close to the Jindal House told The Tribune. “The party leadership will decide whether or not to accept her candidacy. However, he disclosed that she is ready for the elections.
Nevertheless, that would come as a harsh shock to 72-year-old current MLA Kamal Gupta, who has been an MLA twice already, having defeated Congress contender Savitri Jindal in 2014. According to party sources, he was attempting to secure his Hisar Assembly constituency seat for a third consecutive term as a candidate.
According to the BJP insiders, the party was evaluating the effectiveness of its current ministers and MLAs. This time around, the BJP is probably going to unseat a number of current MLAs because the party’s popularity in the state is declining.
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