Ex-Haryana minister Savitri Jindal quits Cong, joins BJP

Chandigarh: Former Haryana minister Savitri Jindal quit the Congress and joined the BJP on Thursday, days after her son and industrialist Naveen Jindal left the party to join the saffron outfit.

The 84-year-old Savitri Jindal joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at an event in Hisar.

She joined the BJP in presence of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, former CM Manohar Lal Khattar and other BJP leaders.

Announcing her decision to quit the Congress on a social media post late Wednesday night, she said, "I represented the people of Hisar for 10 years as an MLA and have served Haryana state selflessly as a minister. The people of Hisar are my family and on the advice of my family, I am resigning from the primary membership of the Congress today".

Savitri Jindal was listed as the richest woman in the country by Forbes India this year.

According to the Forbes list of the 10 richest women in India, Savitri Jindal, who is the wife of late industrialist and former minister O P Jindal, has a net worth of 29.1 billion USD (one billion = Rs 100 crore).

Savitri Jindal was a minister in the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda led Congress government in Haryana.

In 2014, she lost to BJP's Dr Kamal Gupta from Hisar. Gupta is currently a minister in the Nayab Singh Saini government.

Naveen Jindal, who represented Kurukshetra constituency in Lok Sabha from 2004-14 as a Congress MP, had quit the the party on Sunday, and said he wants to contribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's agenda of 'Viksit Bharat'.

He has been named as the BJP candidate from Kurukshetra.