Gurugram: Haryana Deputy Chief Minister and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader Dushyant Chautala has dismissed speculations about fissures in its alliance with the BJP, claiming that it is “functioning very well” and a decision on seat-sharing will be taken before the Lok Sabha elections.
His remarks came two days after BJP president J.P. Nadda said in Panchkula that his party would win all 10 seats in Haryana, signalling his unwillingness to part with any seat for the JJP, which aligned with it after the 2019 assembly election.
The JJP is seeking to contest at least one Lok Sabha seat — Hisar or Bhiwani — this time.
“I have said on several occasions that as elections draw closer, every political party prepares for the polls for all the seats,” Dushyant Chautala told ThePrint.
“The BJP is preparing for all the seats, and so is the JJP. Our alliance with the BJP is functioning very well as the state government’s performance shows. So far as the poll alliance is concerned, the two parties will sit together ahead of the elections and decide,” he added, saying the media has been speculating about the alliance since it was formed.
A day after Nadda’s statement, a reiteration of what Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said earlier, the JJP held a rally at Gharaunda — which falls in Karnal, the same as Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s assembly constituency — where party workers raised slogans for Dushyant Chautala as the next CM.
JJP supremo Ajay Singh Chautala and state president Nishan Singh exhorted party workers to work hard for the success of ‘Mission Dushyant – 2024’, which aims to ensure Dushyant Chautala’s elevation as CM in this year’s assembly polls.
But, speaking to ThePrint, Singh said neither the mission nor Nadda’s statement is a reflection of the state of the alliance.
When Nadda said the BJP would win all the 10 seats, he meant victory for the alliance, he added.
“It is a common practice in political parties to give some slogan to enthuse party workers. The BJP has also given the slogan of ‘Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra’ to its campaign ahead of the elections,” he added, referring to the initiative to promote awareness and enrolment under central government schemes.
Similarly, he said, ‘Mission Dushyant – 2024’ should also be seen as a slogan for the “upcoming polls for the Haryana assembly due this year”.
Singh said he was hopeful that the BJP and the JJP would contest this year’s polls together, and the issues of seat-sharing will be sorted out at the appropriate time.
Till then, both the parties are preparing for the polls at individual levels, he added.
Subhash Barala, a former state president of the BJP, said while the issue of continuing the alliance with the JJP will be decided by the party high command, there was nothing unusual in Nadda expressing confidence about winning all the 10 seats.
“The BJP won all the 10 seats in 2019, and our party has sitting MPs on all the 10 seats in Haryana. In any kind of seat alliance, it is but natural that the BJP will have its candidates on all the 10 seats,” said Barala.
Barala was elected from the Tohana assembly seat in Haryana in 2014, but was defeated by the JJP’s Devender Babli in 2019.
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Tough test ahead
While the parties deny it, the recent activities of the BJP and the JJP appear to suggest the alliance is headed for a tough test, according to political observers.
Haryana-based political analyst Pawan Kumar Bansal said it is unlikely the alliance will last until the parliamentary polls.
“The JJP doesn’t have a claim to a single Lok Sabha seat as the BJP has sitting MPs on all the 10 seats in the state. Naturally, the BJP is unlikely to offer any seat to the JJP if the party wants to continue the alliance,” he added. “In that case, it will be left to the JJP to either support the BJP without a single seat or to quit the alliance.”
Hemant Atri, another political analyst, said while the BJP is unlikely to break the alliance with the JJP, it is also unlikely to cede any seat to the JJP in the parliamentary polls.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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