In an historic political move, Savitri Jindal, India's wealthiest woman and a former Haryana minister, recently switched parties and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in preparation for the 2024 parliamentary elections. It follows the previous defection of her son, an industrialist, Naveen Jindal, also from Congress to BJP. Being an official member of ruling BJP, Savitri Jindal was welcomed in a ceremony held at Hisar, Haryana where she was welcomed by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
In an attempt to make a social media statement, Savitri Jindal stated that she and the residents of Hisar were like family. She mentioned that the reason she left the Congress party was because her family had asked her to do it. In her post, she emphasized on her 10 years as a people's representative of Hisar and her unconditional service as a minister to the state of Haryana.
Savitri Jindal had already been a minister under the previous Congress-led government headed by the former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Nevertheless, she lost in 2014 elections in the Hisar constituency to BJP's Dr. Kamal Gupta. The current portfolio of Dr. Gupta is a ministerial role under the Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini government.
A couple of months ago, for example, Forbes valued Savitri Jindal as the richest woman in India, with a staggering net worth of $ 29.1 billion. She is the widow of the well-known industrialist and former minister O.P. Jindal. Furthermore, the rumor that her son, Naveen Jindal, has quit the Congress party has been making rounds recently. Previously, he held the position of a Member of Parliament from the Kurukshetra constituency in the Lok Sabha, serving from 2004 to 2014.
The career shift of Savitri Jindal, along with the subsequent change of seats by her son, is a political development of enormous importance in relation to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Her wealth and experience in politics are background elements of this decision, which has already caught wide attention of the Indian political establishment.
