lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Mar 26, 2019 15:01 IST

Four days after Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MLA from Nalwa, Ranbir Singh Gangwa joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), another INLD MLA Kehar Singh of Hathin constituency joined hands with the saffron party on Monday.

Kehar Singh was taken into the fold of saffron party by Haryana BJP president Subhash Barala and national general secretary and Haryana in-charge Anil Jain at the party headquarters in New Delhi.

The exodus from the INLD, which came with 19 MLAs in the 90-member assembly in Haryana in 2014, had begun about four months when four of its MLAs, namely Naina Chautala (MLA, Dabwali) Anoop Dhanak (Uklana), Rajdeep Phogat (Dadri) and Prithi Singh (Narwana), openly sided with the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) formed in December last year after the split in INLD. They have not formally resigned from the INLD, though.

INLD leader Abhay Chautala had sent his resignation as the leader of opposition to Haryana assembly speaker on Saturday and sought disqualification of five MLAs (named above) from membership of the Vidhan Sabha for anti-party activities.

Following the death of two party MLAs - Hari Chand Middha and Jaswinder Singh Sandhu- INLD’s numbers had fallen to 17 and it nosedived to 12 following the latest exodus. After Kehar Singh’s exit, it stands at 11 now.

The Congress, which has 17 MLAs in Haryana Assembly, could stake a claim to be the main opposition party and have the leader of the Opposition, subsequent to disqualification of INLD MLAs by the assembly Speaker Kanwar Pal. He is likely to send notice to them on Tuesday.

PARALYMPIAN DEEPA MALIK TOO JOINS BJP

Besides Kehar Singh, the first Indian Paralympics medalist Deepa Malik also joined the BJP in New Delhi on Monday.

Forty-eight-year-old Malik is the first Indian woman athlete to have won a medal at Paralympics with her silver in the women’s shotput event at the Rio Games in 2016. “The work that PM Modi has done for women empowerment and his thoughts towards women, is evident and he has also worked extensively for the divyangs,” she said after joining the party.