Gurugram: Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) would support any move by the Congress to topple the Nayab Singh Saini-led BJP government in Haryana and also give outside support to the Opposition-led government, party chief Dushyant Chautala said Wednesday.
His comments came a day after three Independent MLAs withdrew their support from the BJP government, rendering it a minority government.
Sombir Sangwan from Charkhi Dadri, Randhir Singh Gollen from Pundri, and Dharampal Gonder from Nilokheri Tuesday announced their support for the Congress in the presence of Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Haryana Congress President Udai Bhan.
The minority Saini government has now lost the moral right to stay in power, Chautala said at a press conference at Hisar on Wednesday. Saini should either prove his majority on the House floor or tender his resignation on moral grounds, the JJP chief said.
His party would write to the governor and request him to ask Saini to prove his majority in the House, he added.
“The ball is now in the court of the Leader of Opposition, Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Being the leader of the largest party in the Opposition, Hooda should initiate a move to topple the minority government led by Nayab Singh Saini. Our MLAs will support him in all his endeavours to topple the BJP government and form the Opposition’s government in Haryana,” Chautala told The Print over a phone call later on Wednesday.
Responding to him, Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that before offering support to topple the government, Dushyant Chautala should first parade his 10 MLAs before the governor.
“He (Dushyant Chautala) is saying this after staying in power with the BJP for four and a half years. Everyone in Haryana knows well that he is fighting the election on all ten seats as the B-team of the BJP. If he wants to prove people wrong, he should parade his 10 MLAs before the governor and demand the dismissal of the government,” said Hooda over a phone call with The Print Wednesday.
Confronted with Hooda’s claims, Chautala said he doesn’t need to parade his MLAs before the governor.
“Let Hooda bring a no-confidence motion against the government, and we will issue a whip asking all our MLAs to support the motion. Once a whip is issued, no MLA can go against it, without risking his or her membership in the state assembly,” he said.
Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who was campaigning in Sirsa for BJP candidate Ashok Tanwar, told media persons at Tanwar’s residence Wednesday that there was no threat to his government and that despite the withdrawal of support by the three MLAs, his government has majority support in the House.
Saini said that even if the JJP and the Congress join hands, they can not topple his government as he has the majority, but he did not clarify how his government would manage the numbers.
On Tuesday, Praveen Attrey, Saini’s media secretary, claimed while talking to The Print that four JJP MLAs — Jogi Ram Sihag, Ram Niwas Surjakhera, Ram Kumar Gautam, and Devender Singh Babli — were with the government.
Haryana Speaker Gian Chand Gupta Wednesday told ThePrint that he did not have any official information on the three Independent MLAs withdrawing support from the government.
“Whatever I know about the alleged withdrawal of support is from the media reports. Officially, neither the MLAs have given any information to me, nor the Congress leaders have sent any communication,” he said.
“Generally, when a no-confidence motion is moved in the state assembly, the next motion can be moved only after six months. However, the governor can take any decision as a constitutional authority. If any orders come from the governor, he would go by that,” he added.
Earlier, on 23 February, the Congress led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda moved a no-confidence motion against the BJP-JJP government led by Manohar Lal Khattar. The motion was defeated in a voice vote.
Later, on 12 March, the BJP replaced Khattar with Saini as Haryana CM, and a day later, Saini successfully moved a confidence motion.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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