Haryana Polls 2024 | 'Pledged to serve Hisar': Asia's richest woman defies BJP to contest as Independent

Days after the BJP denied her a ticket and fielded sitting MLA and minister Kamal Gupta from Hisar, Asia's richest woman and chairperson of the O P Jindal Group, Savitri Jindal, filed her nomination from the same constituency on Thursday.

The BJP's Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal's mother Savitri Jindal, who was an aspirant for a poll ticket from the party for the Haryana Assembly elections, filed her nomination from the Hisar seat as an Independent candidate.

She had aspired for a BJP ticket to contest the polls from Hisar but the party renominated sitting MLA and state minister Kamal Gupta from the seat.

After filing her nomination, she said, "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."

"The Jindal family has always served Hisar. I am fully dedicated to living up to the expectations of the people and maintaining their trust," Savitri Jindal said.

When asked whether she rebelled against her party, she claimed she never joined the BJP officially.

"I have been in the public for the past 20 years to serve them. I should be given one chance to serve the public. Otherwise too, this is my last election. I want to complete unfinished works of Hisar’s public,” she told The Indian Express.

Forbes India has listed Savitri, the wife of noted industrialist late O P Jindal, as the richest woman in the country this year having a net worth of $29.1 billion.

The 72-year-old became the chairwoman of the Jindal Group shortly after her husband, founder OP Jindal, died in a helicopter crash in 2005. The company produces steel and operates in cement, energy and infrastructure.

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

The ruling BJP is eyeing a hat-trick in the assembly polls but faces a stiff challenge from a resurgent Congress, which is looking to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor.

(With inputs from PTI)