India’s Richest Woman And Former Haryana Minister Savitri Jindal Quits Congress, Joins BJP

India’s richest woman and former Haryana minister, 84-year-old Savitri Jindal, quit the Congress and joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at an event in Hisar, news agency PTI reported.

Her move came days after her son and industrialist Naveen Jindal left the party to join the saffron outfit.

Expressing happiness, the industrialist took to X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, “Under the leadership of Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, Union Home Minister Amit Shah ji, the guidance of Nadda ji and the leadership of former Chief Minister Manohar Lal ji and Chief Minister Shri Nayab Singh Saini ji, I and my entire team were made members of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Modi family with respect and honour, for which I am very grateful to the party leadership. Grateful.”

“I also thank the party officials and workers of Haryana and Hisar, who gave us so much respect. Together we are committed to working towards achieving Modi ji’s dream of a Developed India,” she added.

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

CM Saini took to X (formerly Twitter) to share the news. “Former MLA and Minister in Haryana Government, Mrs Savitri Jindal ji and her daughter Mrs. Seema Jindal ji are welcome to the BJP family. We are all grateful for her contribution as a leading female industrialist and social worker.”

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 the late industrialist and former minister OP 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.

Her son, 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.