Bishnoi family attacks Khattar, day after CM said Kuldeep disgraced his father

A day after Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said Adampur Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi was not a worthy son to his father and former chief minister late Bhajan Lal, the Bishnoi family today launched a counter attack on the CM and the BJP.

Without taking his name, Khattar launched a veiled attack on Kuldeep, late Bhajan Lal's younger son, and said the latter was not a true inheritor of the former CM's political legacy.

The chief minister was addressing public meetings in Siswal, Sadalpur and Balsamand villages of Adampur constituency in Hisar district yesterday.

He said the BJP wanted to project Bhajan Lal as the chief ministerial candidate during the 2009 Assembly elections when Kuldeep parted ways with the Congress, but he (Kuldeep) rejected the proposal, insisting that he and not his father be projected as the CM candidate.

Adampur is considered a pocket borough of the late Bhajan Lal and his family, and Khattar's launching a personal attack has not gone down well with the family.

"I want to say that it is Haryana's misfortune that it has got a Chief Minister like Khattar," Kuldeep Bishnoi's wife and Congress' sitting MLA from Hansi in Hisar district Renuka Bishnoi said today.

"During the BJP's rule, Haryana burnt on three occasions (referring to violence during godman Rampal, Jat and Dera issues), why did Khattar sahab not resign on moral grounds. The reason why he is targeting Kuldeepji now is that Khattar is feeling frustrated knowing well that the BJP is losing Haryana very badly. The BJP is not going to win any seat in the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha polls next year," she told reporters in Hisar.

Renuka Bishnoi further asked from where the question of Kuldeep wanting to be projected as the chief ministerial candidate of the erstwhile HJC-BJP alliance over Chaudhary Bhajan Lal emerged when the latter had passed away in 2011.

"The alliance between the Haryana Janhit Congress and the BJP had been weaved after Chaudhary Bhajan Lal's demise. I think Mr Khattar should get his facts checked before speaking," she added.

Renuka said that top leaders of the BJP had themselves projected Kuldeep as the chief ministerial face of the then HJC-BJP alliance and that he had worked very hard for its success, "but the BJP betrayed him".

In August 2014, barely days ahead of the Assembly elections in Haryana in October 2014, Kuldeep Bishnoi-led Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) had snapped snapped ties with the BJP, putting an end to the prolonged tussle between the two parties which had been in an alliance for nearly three years.

After the breakup, Kuldeep's HJC later merged into Congress and the BJP went on to contest the state Assembly elections on its own winning 47 seats in the 90-member House.

When asked to comment on Khattar's claim that as a legislator of Adampur, he (Kuldeep) had never raised issues of his constituency in the Haryana Assembly and his presence in the Assembly was not more than 20 per cent, Kuldeep's elder brother and former deputy chief minister Chander Mohan said, "people of Adampur know Kuldeep's intent, people of Haryana know his intent, that is what matters most".

Renuka said the BJP government had announced Rs 180 crore worth development grants for Adampur constituency, "but let them issue a white paper as even 10 per cent of funds have not been released".

Renuka said that Kuldeep will reply to other issues raised by Khattar about him on the floor of the House.