Gurugram: A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party chose to drop it as an alliance partner and replace Manohar Lal Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini as chief minister, the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) remains non-committal about its strategy for the upcoming Parliamentary polls.
The party led by ex-Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala earlier wanted at least two seats — Hisar and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh — in alliance with the BJP, but the latter wasn’t ready to part with any of the 10 seats it had won in 2019 for its ally.
“We leave the question of contesting Parliamentary polls to the wisdom of Ajay Singh Chautala. If he wants us to contest all 10 seats, he can pick any of us sitting on the dais or those sitting in the audience to contest. If he feels we should contest only on the seats we are strong on, we can contest those seats. If he decides that we should not contest Lok Sabha polls at all and concentrate on the assembly elections to be held later this year, we are okay with that too,” said Dushyant Chautala during his speech at the party’s Nav Sankalp Rally in Hisar Wednesday.
Speaking to ThePrint, Randhir Singh Jhanjhra, JJP’s office secretary, said that though the final decision would be taken only after deliberations at the party level, it was true that a section in the party was of the view that the JJP should focus on assembly polls.
“It is a fact that regional parties don’t have much say during Parliamentary polls these days as people vote to form a government at the Centre. A section within the party is of the view that the party should concentrate on its Mission Dushyant 2024, its goal to see Dushyant Chautala as Haryana’s CM in 2024, and concentrate on the assembly polls due in October this year,” said Jhanjhra.
On BJP breaking ties with his party, Dushyant Chautala said the JJP had demanded two seats in the alliance as the party thought it could win these seats easily. However, the BJP offered them Rohtak. “I had met the BJP leadership again and told them to increase old-age pension to Rs 5,100 and the JJP would support BJP candidates without demanding even a single seat,” Dushyant Chautala said. (Increasing old age pension from the present Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,100 per month is one of JJP’s promises.)
During his speech in Hisar, Dushyant Chautala sought to dispel suggestions that JJP was not contesting the polls with BJP to help it divide opposition votes. He also pointed to a video clip doing that rounds that suggested the same.
“I am pained by the type of thinking people can have. Our party works on the life and ideals of Chaudhary Devi Lal. I remained in that government for four and a half years for the welfare of the state. They (BJP) kept us involved (as an alliance partner) and kept giving assurances till the last day. In five years, only one meeting of the NDA was held. Chaudhary Ajay Singh Chautala attended that meeting. But what did they do? Without taking the discussions to any logical conclusion, what they did is there for everyone to see,” Dushyant said.
“Some people will say that the JJP didn’t go with the government now so that the BJP could benefit from it. You tell me who decides which party is going to win? It’s the people who decide and not the political parties,” he added.
Dushyant’s comments made in Hisar coincided with former CM and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda reiterating an earlier statement during a discussion on the confidence motion moved by CM Saini in Haryana Assembly, that the BJP and JJP had a new pact now — an alliance to divide the Opposition votes.
He pointed toward the whip issued by the JJP to its MLAs to abstain from voting in the confidence motion. The four JJP MLAs who skipped Chautala’s rally and were sitting in the assembly left the House once the confidence motion was moved.
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‘BJP-JJP in a live-in relationship’
Explaining the reasons for snapping ties with the JJP, former CM Khattar had said to media persons Tuesday, “They were interested in contesting Lok Sabha polls on their own.”
Recent media reports, however, highlighted a video featuring Madhya Pradesh minister Kailash Vijayvargiya of the BJP. In the video, he says that the BJP decided to sever ties with the JJP due to concerns over the latter’s party leaders tarnishing their reputation. He also claimed that he was in Haryana three days before the party ended its alliance with the JJP. Vijayvargiya was BJP’s in-charge for Haryana when the party first came to power with full majority in the state in 2014.
Political analyst Hemant Atri, however, feels that the BJP and JJP’s relationship will not change by much even after the end of the alliance.
“If the alliance was a marriage between the two parties, what they are in today is a political live-in relationship. Neither BJP is uttering a word against JJP, nor is the latter saying anything against its former alliance partner. The very fact that the JJP didn’t ask its MLAs to vote with the Opposition against the confidence motion moved by Nayab Singh Saini and rather helped the motion by abstaining, proves that they are still with the BJP,” Atri said.
He explained that for the BJP, the “support” of the JJP is required in four Jat-dominated constituencies of Hisar, Bhiwani- Mahendragarh, Rohtak and Sonipat so that they can field their candidates and divide Opposition votes to help BJP win these seats.
Mahabir Jaglan, another political analyst, doesn’t see any future for the JJP in the coming Parliamentary and assembly elections.
“The JJP remained with the government when farmers were sitting on Delhi borders for 378 days. They didn’t utter a word when the Haryana government was hurling tear gas shells and rubber bullets on farmers leading to the death of a young farmer. They didn’t speak when women wrestlers from Haryana cried for support against their sexual harassment by a BJP MP. Now, they don’t have a reason why people of the state should support them,” Jaglan added.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)