HJC, Congress merger on the cards after Kuldeep Bishnoi meets Rahul Gandhi

As the Punjab Assembly election is nearing, almost every political party has started to take steps to ensure a strong win. Speculations are rife that the Haryana Janhit Congress' will merge itself with the Congress.

According to a report in The Tribune, the merger is on the cards after Janhit Congress supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

The HJC has presently two MLAs in the Assembly - Kuldeep Bishnoi, who represents his father Bhajan Lal's traditional Adamapur seat of Hisar, and his wife Renuka Bishnoi who represents Hansi.

The HJC was founded on 2 December 2007, after breaking away from the Congress.

Bhajan Lal, who was the founder of the HJC ruled the state from 1979 to 1986 and then again from 1991 to 1996.

After Bhajan Lal's death on 3 June 2011, Bishnoi took over the reins of the party and forged an alliance with the BJP for the 2014 Parliamentary and Assembly elections.

Now, HJC's merger with the Congress will be more like a homecoming for Bishnoi. Political analysts feel that the merger is likely to give a boost to the Congress among non-Jats, who have been feeling let down both by the government as well as the opposition parties after the Jat agitation.