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‘Avenge Birender Singh’s tears’ — BJP drops another ‘hint’ of rift with Dushyant Chautala’s JJP

At Chautala's constituency Uchana Kalan, BJP Haryana in-charge Biplab Deb asks party workers to work to ensure Birender Singh’s wife wins in 2024. It is the latest in such statements by BJP leaders.

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Chandigarh: Is the BJP thinking of dumping alliance partner Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) before the Haryana election next year? That’s the question being raised after yet another BJP leader Biplab Kumar Deb seemingly made a statement Sunday indicating that not all is well in the ruling camp. 

Addressing a ‘Karyakarta Sammelan’ (workers’ meeting) at Uchana Kalan Sunday, Deb urged party workers to take revenge “for the tears” that former Union minister Chaudhary Birender Singh shed in 2019. 

He was seemingly referring to the assembly polls that year, when JJP chief and Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala defeated Birender Singh’s wife Premlata in Jind’s Uchana Kalan by a margin of 47,452 votes. 

2014 (sic) mein Chaudhary Birender Singh ki ankh se pani nikla uska pratishodh 2024 mein lenge. (We will take revenge in 2024 for the tears shed by Chaudhary Birender Singh in 2014),” Deb told the gathering Sunday, asking workers to take an oath that “agli Vidhayak to Uchana se meri didi hi banegi (The next MLA from Uchana will be my sister)”, referring to Premlata. 

Deb, the former BJP chief minister of Tripura, also tweeted a video of his speech, which comes less than a year before the 2024 parliamentary and the Haryana Assembly polls. The development is being seen as yet another indication of a widening chasm between the two alliance partners.

Deb’s words came on a day when Chautala was also meeting people in Kaithal, Haryana. Speaking to media persons in the evening, he said: “Don’t harbour any misconceptions. I will contest from Uchana.”

Having contested the 2019 Assembly election separately, the BJP under Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had entered into a post-poll alliance with the JJP under Chautala to retain power in the state. 

While then BJP had won 40 seats in the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the JJP had won 10 seats. 

ThePrint tried to reach JJP chief Chautala by phone. This report will be updated when he responds.

But JJP’s chief spokesman Deepkamal Saharan told ThePrint that Deb was referring to 2014, not 2019, while talking about “avenging” Birender Singh’s tears.

According to Saharan, Deb was referring to the time when Birender Singh, a Jat leader and then part of the Congress, was being considered to be part of the Union Cabinet under then prime minister Manmohan Singh but was eventually dropped.

It’s significant to note that although Birender Singh was reportedly considered for a role in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet, it was in 2013 not 2014.

He eventually joined the BJP in August 2014.


Also Read: BJP switches to election mode in Haryana: Amit Shah rally, drive to clinch Chautala strongholds


Widening rift?

The last few months have seen BJP drop several hints of a rift with its ally. In January, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while addressing a BJP rally in Gohana, said the “lotus will bloom on all the 10 seats in Haryana”.  

The statement, which was referring to Haryana’s parliamentary seats, was especially surprising given that it came less than a fortnight after Chautala announced that his party would contest both assembly and parliamentary elections in alliance with Shah’s BJP.

This was followed by a similar hint in March — this time by BJP state chief O.P. Dhankar. Addressing party workers, Dhankar had then not only reiterated Shah’s statement by asking party workers to work towards that goal but had gone a step further by claiming that even Chautala’s supporters wanted him to be rid of the prefix “deputy” from his current title ‘deputy chief minister’.

On its part, the JJP has been cautious in reacting to the BJP’s statements. At a press conference in April, Chautala, in response to a question about the future of the BJP-JJP alliance, said: “I’m not an astrologer”.   

“I cannot say what will happen in the future,” he said, adding that “as of today, we have an alliance with the BJP and it is working well”, and that “the state has progressed well during the BJP-JJP regime”. 

However, at the same time, he also told ThePrint that his party was preparing to contest all 10 parliamentary seats. 

“As far as the next year’s elections are concerned, we are preparing for all the 10 Lok Sabha seats. Every party aspires to increase its number of seats in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha, and with that in mind, we are trying to strengthen our base in all the seats,” he had said then.

Referring to Deb’s remarks, JJP spokesperson Saharan told ThePrint its usual for a party leader to motivate workers when they go to attend a party meeting.

“As far Uchana is concerned, its voters chose Dushyant Chautala as their MLA in 2019 giving him a victory of 48,000 votes over Premlata of BJP. Since then, the deputy CM has not only adopted Uchana as his karmbhoomi and political home, but has also initiated dozens of development works in various villages,” he said.  

Birender Singh’s family are “desperate to regain Uchana by playing some emotional card”, he said. 

“Yesterday (Sunday), Premlata said she didn’t visit Uchana for 3.5 years after losing in 2019 whereas Birender Singh said he will leave politics if he fails to do a rally of 1 lakh people. Premlata called Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala as ‘Dusht’ or an evil person. Brijender Singh said JJP is like a nasal cold thrown on ground (sic). Such personal and desperate statements by a family in front of each other show how hopeless they are and sadly JJP of Dushyant Chautala has no remedy for them,” he said. 

(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)


Also Read: Missing Chautalas in poll posters, ‘poaching’: Signs of trouble in Haryana’s BJP-JJP alliance


 

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