Gurugram: The alliance in Haryana between the BJP and the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) ended Tuesday with the national party refusing to cede any of the 10 parliamentary seats in the state to its partner.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has submitted his resignation and that of the Cabinet’s to Governor Bandaru Dattatreya, and is poised to redraw a new cabinet minus the JJP, which is led by Dushyant Chautala.
Khattar, who has called a meeting of his party’s MLAs in Chandigarh this afternoon, has also invited Independent MLAs.
The BJP has 41 MLAs in the 90-member assembly, the support of 6 out of 7 Independent MLAs, and also the support of Haryana Lokhit Party MLA Gopal Kanda, all of whom are already in Chandigarh to attend Khattar’s meeting.
Independent MLA Nayan Pal Rawat told The Print that all six Independents and Kanda have given their letter of support to Khattar.
The chief minister now has the support of at least 48 MLAs, and is not under any threat.
It is learnt that five JJP MLAs — Ram Kumar Gautam, Ram Niwas, Jogi Ram, Devender Babli, and Ishwar Singh — are also in Chandigarh to hold up the Khattar government.
Haryana CM’s chief media coordinator Sudesh Kataria told ThePrint that Khattar will take a fresh oath as chief minister with his new cabinet at 1.30 pm Tuesday.
In Chandigarh, Haryana minister Kanwar Pal told the media that Khattar would again be elected leader of the legislature party and take oath as CM. BJP MLA Sanjay Singh, too, confirmed that Khattar would lead the state.
The BJP’s central leadership has appointed Union Minister Arjun Munda and BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh as observers. The two senior leaders have arrived in Chandigarh and a meeting of the legislators is likely to be held anytime to elect the new leader.
On the other hand, Dushyant Chautala, who met BJP president J.P. Nadda on Monday, has left for Delhi to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
A senior JJP leader told The Print Tuesday that Chautala’s meeting with Nadda lasted just half an hour during which the party president was categorical that the BJP’s Haryana unit was not willing to give the JJP any Parliamentary seat.
After this, Khattar called an emergency meeting of senior cabinet colleagues, including Anil Vij, at his residence on Monday and announced the meeting of supportive MLAs the next day.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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