Gurugram: Relations between the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), allies in Haryana, have turned even more precarious, with the former fielding candidates in 25 seats in Rajasthan where the BJP is also in the fray.
Not only that, the JJP has also launched ‘Mission Dushyant 2024’, projecting party leader and Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala as its CM candidate for the Haryana polls, due in October next year.
The Rajasthan elections, set to be held this month, are crucial for the BJP, which is contesting all 200 assembly seats in an attempt to wrest power back from the Congress after being defeated in 2018.
The JJP had announced its first six candidates for the Rajasthan polls late last month. Subsequent lists — the final one was released Monday evening, on last day of filing nominations — have brought the total to 25.
Speaking to ThePrint, the JJP’s Haryana president, Nishan Singh, said the party had announced its Rajasthan foray well in advance because Ajay Singh Chautala, national president of the party, has been MLA from that state twice — from Danta Ramgarh in 1990 and Nohar in 1993 — and party patriarch Chaudhary Devi Lal had won from the Sikar parliamentary seat in 1989.
“We were hoping for an alliance with the BJP in Rajasthan, but unfortunately, it didn’t happen. In any case, we are also contesting the elections in Rajasthan to oust the Congress from power, and that’s the same reason the BJP is contesting,” he said.
This comes at a time when a senior BJP leader has called for an end to the alliance with the JJP in Haryana. On Saturday, former Union minister Birender Singh, speaking at a meeting of BJP workers in Jind, had warned that if the party “didn’t snap ties with the JJP immediately, it would not be able to get even 20 seats in the 90-member Haryana assembly in 2024”.
“If the party wants Manohar Lal Khattar to become the CM of Haryana for the third time in 2024, the party will have to break ties with the JJP,” he said.
Last month, addressing a ‘Meri Awaaz Suno’ rally in Jind, Singh had announced that he would not remain in the BJP if the party didn’t snap ties with the JJP.
Speaking to mediapersons Sunday, Dushyant Chautala downplayed Singh’s comments and said the BJP-JJP alliance was working well by providing a stable government in Haryana.
ThePrint was unable reach Singh over the phone for comment. But Haryana BJP chief Nayab Singh Saini said, “Birender Singh is a senior leader of our party. However, as far as the party’s alliance with the JJP is concerned, the central leadership alone can take a call.”
Saini added that the party’s senior leaders had taken cognisance of the JJP’s electoral foray into Rajasthan, as well as JJP leaders’ statements at rallies.
“Any decision in this regard will be taken at their level, going by the best interests of the party,” said Saini.
Also Read: Khattar takes swipe at JJP MLA, but says ‘alliance for public good, will continue’
‘Mission Dushyant 2024’
Addressing the JJP’s ‘Nav Sankalp Rally’ in Haryana’s Shahabad Sunday, Ajay Singh Chautala exhorted workers to pull up their socks for ‘Mission Dushyant 2024’, pointing out that less than a year was left for the assembly polls.
He asserted that his son, Dushyant Chautala, had been “able to fulfil all the promises” made to the people at the time of the last Haryana assembly elections in 2019. “The only regret is that we could not increase old age pension to Rs 5,100. But now, when our party comes to power after the 2024 polls, we will provide Rs 10,000 as social security pension to the elderly,” he said.
He added that the BJP-JJP government in Haryana had “increased the old age pension gradually from Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000”.
A JJP leader Monday told ThePrint that ‘Mission Dushyant 2024’ was the goal set by the party to see Dushyant Chautala as Haryana CM.
Nishan Singh asserted that no one should have a problem with this, as every political party contests elections to win and form a government.
“In an election, political parties enthuse their workers by setting high targets so that they give their best in the elections. The party has already announced that it will contest all 10 Lok Sabha seats (in Haryana) in the 2024 general elections, and has started constituency-wise Jan Sankalp rallies across the state,” he said.
“The Shahabad rally Sunday was the fourth in the series for the Kurukshetra parliamentary seat. Before this, the party had already held rallies in Julana for the Sonipat parliamentary seat, in Dadri for Bhiwani constituency and in Mohana for Faridabad parliamentary seat,” he added.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: BJP switches to election mode in Haryana: Amit Shah rally, drive to clinch Chautala strongholds