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JJP’s foundation and journey so far
Dushyant Chautala founded JJP on 9 December 2018 after he and his younger brother, Digvijay Singh Chautala, separated from the INLD.
The party was formed following the suspension of Dushyant and Digvijay Chautala from INLD by their grandfather and party chief Om Prakash Chautala. The reason was a ruckus caused by their supporters at a rally commemorating the 105th birthday of Chaudhary Devi Lal, the founder of INLD and Om Prakash’s father, held in Gohana on 25 September, 2018. Chaudhary Devi Lal had previously served as deputy prime minister in the V.P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar governments.
When Dushyant founded the JJP, Ajay Singh Chautala and Om Prakash Chautala were in jail in a teachers’ recruitment scam case. Ajay, however, supported his son.
The JJP drew a blank in the 2019 parliamentary election — the first the party contested after its founding. Dushyant Chautala was a sitting INLD MP from Hisar but also lost his seat.
Later, in October of the same year, the JJP won 10 seats in the 2019 assembly election. The state’s ruling party BJP, which won 40 seats, fell short of a majority in the 90-member assembly. The two parties entered into a post-poll alliance and formed a government with Dushyant Chautala as the deputy chief minister.
On March 12 this year, the BJP dropped the JJP after it insisted on contesting two seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha election while the BJP was unwilling to share a single seat.
Now, the JJP has announced its decision to contest all 10 seats in Haryana but is in a difficult situation on more than one front.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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