Haryana’s political crisis : Dushyant Chautala’s JJP announces support to Congress

Haryana’s politics has taken a new turn when the state is just a fortnight away from the polling day of the Lok Sabha 2024 elections. Three Independent MLAs Dharampal Gondher from Nilokheri Randhir Golan from Pundri, and Sombir Sangwan from Dadri gave their "outside" support to the Congress and retracted their endorsement of the state's BJP government. The three independent MLAs who shifted their loyalties to the Congress party yesterday announced the decision in the presence of Haryana’s ex-chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.This resulted in the BJP being momentarily positioned with 40 MLAs in the Assembly.

The majority mark is 45 as the House's strength is lowered to 88 after two BJP MLAs Manohar Lal Khattar and Ranjit Chautala left the house to fight the parliamentary elections. Although the BJP stated on Tuesday that four MLAs from the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) may also provide “tactical assistance to the government if needed,” bringing its total number of supporters to 47, the BJP government now has the support of 43 MLAs. Now, with a new twist Dushyant Chautala’s JJP, the former ally of BJP in Haryana cleared that the party which played the role of maker or breaker in the 2019 assembly elections will block BJP’s way to complete the 5 year term in the state.

Dushyant Chautala on Wednesday morning stated, “The BJP is talking of winning all 10 Lok Sabha seats and one seat of Karnal bypoll. But three MLAs withdrawing support shows how weak the BJP has become. I would also like to tell the Leader of the Opposition that according to the mathematics of numbers today if a step is taken to topple this government during elections, I would thoroughly consider supporting him ( referring to Hooda) from outside. It is now for Congress to think if it will take a step to topple the BJP government,”.

The ex-deputy cm also added that “Three MLAs have withdrawn support and two MLAs, including Manohar Lal Khattar (Lok Sabha candidate from Karnal) and Ranjit Singh (candidate from Hisar), have resigned from the Vidhan Sabha. This makes it five MLAs out of the Vidhan Sabha. It proves that the BJP government has failed to have a simple majority. I demand that the chief minister resign on moral grounds. The three Independents have sent their withdrawal of support to the governor. We shall also urge the governor and even send it in writing to him seeking directions to the state government to prove majority".

Now, as Dushyant Chautala cleared his support to the congress party, the congress is yet to clear his stand. Though Dushyant Chautala cleared his stand for congress it won’t be a cakewalk for the veteran Bhupinder Singh Hooda to decide on the offer, looking at the opposition Dushyant’s JJP is facing in the villages of Haryana. Notably, the assembly elections in Haryana are just six months away and whatever decision the congress party makes in the coming days will surely impact its poll performance on the ground.