Notably, Shruti Choudhry, the daughter of BJP’s recently elected Rajya Sabha MP Kiran Chaudhry, is the target of his campaign.
On Wednesday, October 2, Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag endorsed Congress candidate Anirudh Chaudhary for the Haryana assembly elections scheduled for October 5th in the Tosham assembly constituency.
Notably, Shruti Choudhry, the daughter of BJP’s recently elected Rajya Sabha MP Kiran Chaudhry, is the target of his campaign. Both Kiran and Shruti were once members of the Congress, but following the outcome of the June Lok Sabha election, they switched to the BJP. Kiran received the Rajya Sabha ticket shortly after this.
Due to her family’s long-standing political influence in the area, Shruti is running for the Tosham seat. Kiran, the daughter-in-law of former Haryana Chief Minister Chaudhry Bansi Lal, has represented this constituency since 2005. While his son-in-law, Surender Singh, who is married to Kiran, won three times in the same area, Bansi Lal had won five times for the Tosham constituency. Kiran won the by-election following Surender’s death in 2005 and has been able to keep the area under control ever since.
After winning a seat in the Lok Sabha from Bhiwani in 2009 on a Congress ticket, Shruti Choudhry lost to BJP candidates in the general elections of 2014 and 2019, and as a result, she was not given a Congress ticket for the general elections in 2024.
She was chosen to run for her mother’s assembly seat in Tosham after joining the BJP. Anirudh Chaudhry, the previous treasurer of the BCCI, was nominated by the Congress for the same position.
Sehwag urged the residents of Tosham to support him during the campaign, referring to Anirudh as his older brother. Tosham is relevant to Anirudh as well. For Anirudh, Tosham holds both political significance and personal significance as it runs in his family.
He is the grandson of Haryana’s former chief minister, Bansi Lal. Since Anirudh is the son of Ranbir Singh Mahendra and Shruti is the daughter of Surender Singh, it is easy to connect the two candidates, who are both directly linked to Bansi Lal.
Sehwag had a lot of encouragement from Ranbir Singh Mahendra, who was also the BCCI president from 2004 to 2005. Due to their cousinly rivalry, Sehwag sided with Anirudh in the conflict. Although there hasn’t been a formal alliance, Anirudh has spoken out against the BJP administration in power while supporting important causes like farmers, water, and regions.
