Two of the BJP’s leaders from Haryana, Union Minister Bhupender Yadav and former Member of Parliament Sudha Yadav, were added to the central election committee on Wednesday as part of a significant organisational reorganisation. The highest decision-making body of the BJP, the parliamentary board, has also accepted Sudha Yadav.
Many perceived Rao Inderjit Singh, the party’s Gurgaon MP and a significant politician from the state’s Ahirwal area, which comprises Rewari, Mahendragarh, Gurgaon, as well as portions of Bhiwani, Dadri, Nuh, and Jhajjar and Rajasthan’s Alwar, as being snubbed by their inclusion.
In the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, Sudha Yadav, a BJP candidate and the wife of a Kargil war victim, defeated Rao from the Mahendragarh seat in south Haryana. But Rao, who was then a member of the Congress, made a return and defeated Sudha twice, once in the parliamentary elections from Mahendragarh and once from Gurgaon, in 2004 and 2009, respectively.
Rao later joined the BJP after leaving the Congress just before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Rao hasn’t gotten his way in the state, according to sources. Ministers in the Khattar Cabinet who are thought to be in Rao’s camp, Om Prakash Yadav and Banwari Lal, have been assigned minor ministries; Yadav is in charge of Social Justice and Empowerment and Sainik and Ardh Sainik Welfare, and Lal is in charge of SC and BC Welfare.
Even worse, Rao was let go from the BJP’s national executive in October of last year.
However, Sudha and Bhupender Yadav have been appointed to the central election committee of the BJP.
Bhupender Yadav was elected to the BJP’s national leadership from its Haryana quota in 2021, despite the fact that he is a Rajasthani Rajya Sabha MP and a native of the Gurgaon town of Jamalpur.
It is now believed that the BJP tried to present Sudha and Bhupender as a rival power centre to Rao in the Haryana area of Ahirwal by appointing them to the party along with Rao’s clearly declining membership graph. Rao is a direct descendant of the former monarch of the Ahirwal area, Rao Tularam.
Rao has recently been outspoken in his criticism of the party and the state administration under Khattar.
Recently, Rao said that “the Jaichands in BJP” were to blame for Sunil Musepur, his ally and the party’s candidate for the 2019 Assembly election from Rewari. Rao was speaking at the opening of a library in Rewari at the time. He was presumably making reference to former Rewari MLA Randhir Kapriwas as well as Arvind Yadav, a close friend and head of the Haryana State Co-operative Apex Bank. Prior to Musepur receiving the BJP ticket, Arvind and Kapriwas ran for the position.
The induction of Sudha Yadav and Bhupender Yadav is described as a “organisational concern” by Arvind Yadav, Rao’s political adversary in the Ahirwal community.
“The party will benefit from their recruitment in Haryana, Rajasthan, UP, and Bihar. No need to worry, Rao Inderjit Singh. Rao Sahab would likely run for office in Gurgaon if the party decides he should, according to Arvind Yadav.
Rao is referred to as a “spent force” and a “weather specialist” who is aware of the direction of the political winds by Randhir Kapriwas, a former BJP MLA from Rewari. “He would have lost the race if he hadn’t joined the BJP before the 2014 parliamentary elections. He was aware of that. He will learn what his true capabilities are if he exits the BJP right now,” said Kapriwas.
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