Haryana polls: Savitri Jindal, India's richest woman, may upset election plans for troubled BJP

Even as Haryana is all set to go to the polls on October 5, the BJP, which is battling anti-incumbency issues, is also having to deal with rebels sore at being denied tickets going around publicly criticising the leadership.

Rebel move

Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal's mother Savitri Jindal too was aspiring for a poll ticket from Hisar but it was given to the sitting MP, two-time MLA Kamal Gupta. He is also a minister in the current Saini cabinet.

So, on September 12, on the last day for filing nominations, 74-year-old Savitri Jindal, who is the chairperson of the steel and power conglomerate, O P Jindal Group, filed her nominations as an independent in the Haryana assembly polls. Polling for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana will be held on October 5 and voting will happen on October 8. 

Her supporters had been hoping for a party ticket for her were upset when Kamal Gupta was fielded again by the BJP leadership. They gathered at Jindal House in Hisar to persuade her to enter the fray.

Reports said that after meeting her supporters Savitri said that Hisar which is her family is telling her to fight the elections and she will have to "obey their wishes".

"I can’t say no. To honour their feelings, I will certainly contest the election,” announced Savitri Jindal.

Who is Savitri Jindal?

Forbes India has listed Savitri, the wife of famous late industrialist late O P Jindal, as the richest woman in the country. Her networth surpasses many leading industrialists in the country and stands at US$ 39.5billion this year.

Savitri, who is according to the magazine the only woman billionaire in India in 2024 among India's top richest persons, heads the O P Jindal Group. The credit for all her wealth she gives to the hard work of her late husband Om Prakash Jindal.

In her nomination papers, Savitri has declared her total assets as ₹270.66 crore. For the 2009 elections, she had mentioned her assets at ₹43.68 crore, which went up to ₹113 crore in her 2014 poll nomination.

Political career

Savitri entered the political arena after her husband OP Jindal’s sudden death in a helicopter crash in 2005.

Her husband and Jindal Group founder, Congressman Om Prakash Jindal, had contested from Hisar in three Assembly elections (1991, 2000 and 2005).He was also a minister in the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government when he died.

Savitri won the Hisar bypoll in 2005 as a Congress MLA and was re-elected from the seat in 2009. She was made a minister in the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government in 2013. However, she lost the poll from Hisar in 2014 defeated by none other than Kamal Gupta, who she is now pitted against in the 2024 Haryana polls. Savitri had not contested the 2019 elections.

In March this year, in a major development, when her son Naveen Jindal switched allegiance to the BJP, she also left Congress to join the saffron party.

Relationship with BJP sours

When Savitri Jindal filed her nominations from Hisar as an independent she was asked by reporters if this move amounts to a rebellion. 

To which Savitri said she has actually not taken membership of the BJP. She pointed out that she had only campaigned for her son Naveen Jindal, a BJP candidate in the Lok Sabha polls. (She also campaigned for the BJP candidate from the Hisar Lok Sabha seat, Ranjit Singh Chautala at that time)

However, when her son, Naveen Jindal, who is the current BJP MP from Kurukshetra, had switched his political allegiance from the Congress to the BJP in March just before the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, she too had followed suit. She had joined the BJP in the presence of Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar during a public event in Hisar.

In her view, Savitri felt she had been serving the public for the past 20 years and she should be given one more chance to serve the public. “Otherwise too, this is my last election. I want to complete unfinished works of Hisar’s public,” said Savitri.

On whether she had discussed her move with her son, the matriarch told reporters that everybody knows that once she says ‘yes’ she will not back out. “I will do whatever my Hisar family says,” she claimed, according to reports.

Elder brother

What can be a worrying sign for the BJP is that Savitri also claimed that she had not really resigned from the Congress but “there are no talks with any party regarding contesting the elections”.

Also, Savitri Jindal added that she had good relations with Hooda sahib and called him her “elder brother.” She said that when she had entered politics as a newbie, it was he who had taught her everything.

Tough fight in Hisar

Savitri was defeated by Kamal Gupta in Hisar in the 2014 polls when she contested as a Congress candidate. is poised to give a tough fight to Gupta this time around. The Congress is fielding a political lightweight Ram Niwas Rara 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."

It remains to be seen if her Hisar family will respond to her in the same spirit.