Why JJP MLAs are upset with chief Dushyant Chautala, the most powerful minister in Haryana

MLA Ram Kumar Gautam, who has resigned as JJP vice-president, says Dushyant Chautala has concentrated all the power given to him by BJP in his own hands.

File photo of Haryana Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala (left) with CM Manohar Lal Khattar | ANI Photo

Chandigarh: Barely two months after the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) helped the BJP to form an alliance government in Haryana, resentment is rife within the party against JJP head Dushyant Chautala — also the deputy chief minister — for not sharing the spoils of power.

Party MLAs are upset that Dushyant has kept the power concentrated in his hands.

JJP, with its 10 MLAs, allied with the BJP in October after the assembly election results threw up a fractured mandate. Dushyant emerged the kingmaker as the BJP had managed to get 40 seats and the Congress 31 in the 90-member assembly.

As part of the power-sharing formula worked out between the BJP and the JJP, Dushyant’s party was offered the post of deputy chief minister, one cabinet minister and one minister of state. 

Dushyant was chosen deputy CM by his MLAs, and he subsequently chose Anoop Dhanak, the Uklana MLA, for the minister of state berth. The post of one cabinet minister, which is in the JJP kitty, is yet to be filled.

Dhanak has been given the “non-significant” archaeology department with independent charge, besides the labour and employment ministry (attached to the deputy CM).

Sources in the party said Dushyant is showing no sign of elevating any of his remaining eight MLAs as a cabinet minister.

“Many are upset,” said one of the MLAs, who did not wish to be named.

Dushyant had reportedly told the MLAs that they would be first “tested for three months”.

“Which test is this? The fact is that Dushyant does not want to give up the ministries to a JJP colleague,” he said.

Minister with 10 portfolios

Dushyant has 10 departments in his portfolio as deputy chief minister. These include some of the most powerful ministries in the state.

Barring the finance ministry, which is with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, and the home ministry, which is with BJP’s senior most MLA Anil Vij, rest of the major departments are all with Dushyant.

The 10 departments under him are revenue, excise and taxation, rural development and panchayats, industries and commerce, public works (B&R), food, civil supplies and consumer affairs, labour and employment, civil aviation, rehabilitation and consolidation.

In Khattar’s first tenure as chief minister, no single minister, including him, had all these departments under him.

Dushyant is the most powerful minister in the state as of now, with most of the departments under him dealing with massive government revenue and funds.

Revenue and excise & taxation are the two departments that handle almost the entire income of the government. The food and civil supplies department handles procurement of grain, the single most important exercise in an agriculture state. Procurement of wheat and paddy involves movement of funds to the tune of several thousand crores from the government to the farmers.

The Department of Rural Development and Panchayats is the core department connecting the government to villages and their development, also flushed with funds. The industries department entails a connect with the top industrial houses in the country and abroad.

“Generally, the person who has the finance department is also given the charge of the excise and taxation, as also revenue. However, in this case, while the chief minister has the finance department, these two important departments closely related to finance are being handled by Dushyant,” a senior official in the Khattar government pointed out.

With the JJP having been allotted all the portfolios according to its power-sharing seal with the BJP, Dushyant will have to part with one or more departments that he has kept with him once he chooses a candidate for the vacant cabinet minister berth.

JJP-BJP deal was finalised in a Gurgaon shopping mall, says MLA

The simmering disquiet within the JJP over Dushyant not taking a decision regarding the JJP cabinet minister came out in the open earlier this week as one of the MLAs, Ram Kumar Gautam, resigned from the post of JJP vice-president.

Gautam was among the founders of the JJP when it broke away from the Indian National Lok Dal last year. Gautam was fielded by the JJP from Narnaund and he defeated BJP heavyweight and former finance minister Captain Abhimanyu.

Going public with criticism of Dushyant, the 73-year-old legislator even alleged that the power-sharing formula between the BJP and the JJP was finalised in a shopping mall in Gurgaon, adding the deal between the two parties was signed without Dushyant taking any of his MLAs into confidence.

Gautam also said Chautala has in just two months of power forgotten his family of JJP MLAs because of whom he is enjoying power.

Addressing the media Thursday, Dushyant said Gautam was his “elder” and he did not mind being rapped by him. “Gautam ji was among those in the forefront of taking the decision to join hands with BJP. He has some grievances which he has aired and these will be redressed very soon,” he said.

Dushyant added that other senior members of his party will talk to Gautam and iron out the differences, if any. He said Gautam’s resignation had not been received by him or his office as yet.

Gautam, who is in the race to become a cabinet minister, said Dushyant has concentrated the entire power given to him by the BJP in his own hands. Other people considered for the post of ministers too would be an asset to the government, he said.