Gurugram: What was meant to be a routine BJP press conference on the Viksit Bharat–G Ram G in Gurugram on Sunday quickly spiralled into a political slugfest, laying bare deep and simmering factional faultlines within the party in South Haryana. The focus shifted sharply from policy to personality as the long-running rivalry between two of the region’s most influential leaders, Rao Narbir Singh and Rao Inderjit Singh, erupted into the open yet again.
The official briefing, organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party, was intended to outline the Centre’s vision for rural development under the VB G Ram G framework. Instead, it became a platform of accusations when Rao Narbir Singh, a senior Haryana cabinet minister, launched a sharp personal attack on Union minister and Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh, reviving old political grievances in full public view.
Taking aim at Inderjit Singh’s political narrative, Narbir Singh dismissed references to the 2009 Assembly elections and asserted that his own political rise began by defeating Inderjit Singh. He went further, claiming he had defeated him in 1987 from the Jatusana Assembly constituency, widely considered Inderjit Singh’s stronghold. In a remark that instantly grabbed attention, Narbir Singh quipped that “with advancing age, Rao Inderjit remembers my defeat but has forgotten his own.”
The remarks electrified the atmosphere, turning a policy-focused interaction in Gurugram into a full-blown “Rao vs Rao” showdown. Senior BJP leaders privately concede that the rivalry has been brewing for years, but today’s episode marked one of the rare occasions when it spilled out so openly during an official party event.
The Gurugram confrontation comes against the backdrop of an intensifying war of words between the two leaders in the Ahirwal region. Recently, Narbir Singh accused Rao Inderjit of practising “dubhaat” (discrimination) against South Haryana, escalating tensions that had already been simmering beneath the surface. Earlier, addressing a public meeting in Rajasthan, Rao Inderjit had said that the Ahirwal region had not received an “appropriate prize” for its role in the formation of successive governments. He also asserted that the party could not have come to power without the support of leaders from the region, remarks that were widely interpreted as a signal of dissatisfaction within the BJP’s South Haryana leadership.
Reacting sharply, Narbir Singh, during a media interaction in Rewari on Friday, countered that the BJP had rewarded Rao Inderjit Singh more than any other leader in the country. “He has been made a Union minister and his daughter a Cabinet minister in Haryana. In my perception, there is no other instance like it in the entire country. The BJP has rewarded him richly, though I don’t know which desire of his has remained unfulfilled,” Narbir Singh said.
Responding to related questions, the state minister maintained that the BJP’s rise to power in Haryana was driven by its policies and development work, not by the influence of any single leader, an assertion that directly challenged Inderjit Singh’s claim about the Ahirwal region’s decisive role.
With rival statements, parallel events and now an official press conference derailed by personal attacks, the internal divisions within the BJP in South Haryana are no longer confined to closed-door discussions. Sunday’s dramatic “Rao vs Rao” episode underscores a fierce struggle for dominance within the party, one that risks overshadowing governance messaging and complicating the BJP’s internal coordination in the region as it heads into crucial political battles ahead.
