Senior Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi, who is learnt to be miffed with the party after he failed to get a position in the revamped Haryana unit, met Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Gurugram on late Wednesday evening.

Bishnoi's meeting with CM Khattar has sparked speculation about his next move as the Congress is facing an exodus of leaders amid a decline in its electoral fortunes. It received a jolt in neighbouring Punjab on Thursday when its former State unit Chief Sunil Jakhar joined the BJP. The Congress' Gujarat unit working President Hardik Patel had also resigned from the party a day earlier.

Bishnoi, the 53-year-old son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, said he held a detailed discussion with Khattar on political issues. Taking to Twitter, Bishnoi said there was a detailed positive discussion with the Chief Minister when he met him regarding some issues pertaining to the Congress leader's Adampur constituency and some other matters.

Haryana Government released the notification of Adampur Municipality on June 28, 2020. The three panchayats of Adampur, Mandi Adampur, Adampur village and Jawahar Nagar were included in the municipality. But the people of Adampur village have been staging a sit-in for the last 40 days to stay outside the municipal area. “I had also reached this dharna and promised to take up this issue with the CM,” he added.

"I am grateful to him that he gave instructions in front of me, after accepting my point of view regarding the restoration of Adampur Gram Panchayat," Bishnoi tweeted in Hindi. Notably, after the new appointments in the State unit, Bishnoi had in April told his supporters that he was also angry like them, but urged them to have patience.

Earlier, Bishnoi had sought time from Rahul Gandhi after Udai Bhan was made the Congress State President, but since April 27, he could not meet Rahul Gandhi till now. Kuldeep has been keeping a distance from party activities since then. In such a situation, meeting the CM has given rise to discussions of his growing closeness with the BJP leadership.

The Congress last month appointed former legislator and Bhupinder Singh Hooda loyalist Udai Bhan as Chief of its State unit, replacing Kumari Selja, and named four working presidents. The Congress MLA from Adampur and a prominent non-Jat face, Bishnoi had batted for promoting young faces with a “mass base” to strengthen the party. Bishnoi had earlier described Jyotiraditya Scindia's exit from the party as a big blow and said there are many devoted leaders across the country who feel “alienated, wasted and discontented”.

Bishnoi, who is also a former MP, had in 2007 quit the Congress and floated his own Haryana Janhit Congress outfit when the grand old party had handpicked Bhupinder Singh Hooda in 2005 and made him the Chief Minister overlooking Bhajan Lal, who was a key contender for the top post then.  Bishnoi had stitched an alliance with the BJP. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the HJC contested polls in alliance with the BJP. But in that election, the party lost the Hisar and Sirsa Lok Sabha seats. BJP won 8 seats. The alliance broke before the next assembly elections. Kuldeep's party won just 2 seats. After this, Kuldeep merged his party with the Congress.