Haryana News: Savitri Jindal, India’s richest woman rebels after BJP denies ticket; to contest as independent candidate

Savitri Jindal, mother of BJP's Kurukshetra Member of Parliament Naveen Jindal's who expected a ticket from the party for the Haryana Assembly elections has now filed her nomination from the Hisar seat as an Independent candidate.

On the last day of the filing of nominations on Thursday, 75-year-old Savitri, the wife of noted industrialist late OP Jindal, entered the fray against Haryana Minister and sitting MLA from Hisar Kamal Gupta.

Forbes India has listed Savitri as the richest woman in the country this year having a net worth of USD 29.1 billion. She is the is the chairperson of the steel and power conglomerate, OP Jindal Group.

Polling for the 90 Assembly seats in Haryana will be held on October 5 and the results will be declared on October 8.

"I have pledged to serve Hisar for its development and transformation. The people of Hisar are my family and Om Prakash Jindal had established my relationship with this family," she said after filing her nomination.

When the BJP fielded Kamal Gupta from the Hisar Assembly seat, Savitri Jindal was asked by reporters if her contesting the seat against the ruling party would not amount to rebellion.

In 2014, she lost to BJP's Kamal Gupta from Hisar assembly seat.,

"It won't be considered so. I had only campaigned for my son (Naveen Jindal in the Lok Sabah polls). I have not taken any membership (of the BJP)," she had said.

Savitri Jindal was elected as an MLA from the Hisar seat twice. She became represented Hisar in the Haryana Assembly for the first time in 2005 as a Congress MLA. She was reelected from the seat in 2009 and was made a minister in the Singh Hooda government in 2013.

She quit the Congress in March this year when her son Naveen Jindal also left the party and later joined the BJP. Naveen won the Kurukshetra seat on a BJP ticket in 2024 general elections.

(With PTI inputs)