Dushyant Chautala Faces Major Crisis Ahead Of Haryana Election As JJP MLAs Continue To Desert Party

Haryana Assembly Election 2024: With the Haryana Assembly polls barely a month away, Dushyant Chautala's JJP faces a major crisis with six of its 10 MLAs resigning.

Haryana Assembly Election News: With just over a month left for the Haryana Assembly polls, Dushyant Chautala has found himself in a major crisis as his Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) MLAs continue to desert him. With one after another MLA bidding farewell, the party has lost 60% of its assembly strength in the last few days. JJP, which won 10 seats in the 2019 assembly elections, is now left with only four MLAs. The latest blow came on Thursday as Narwana MLA Ramniwas Surjakhera and Barwala representative Jogiram Sihag quit the party.

JJP, with its 10 MLAs, had played the role of kingmaker in 2019 and ran the government with the BJP for four and a half years. The BJP-JJP alliance broke right before the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year. Now that the dates for 2024 Haryana assembly elections have been announced, the streak of resignations has become a major headache for Dushyant Chautala, who founded the JJP along with his father Ajay Chautala in 2018 after splitting from the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).

MLAs Who Have Left JJP

Six MLAs have so far resigned from the JJP. Ramkaran Kala (Shahbad), Devender Singh Babli (Tohana), Anoop Dhanak (Uklana), and Ishwar Singh (Guhla) quit last week. The most surprising of these resignations was that of Anoop Dhanak, who was a close aide of the Chautala family. He is rumoured to be in talks with the BJP for a ticket in the Haryana Assembly election.

Devender Singh Babli's resignation was expected as he was showing signs of going against the Chautalas. In May, when former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala wrote to the Governor seeking a floor test for the BJP government, Babli had said he had no authority to decide on behalf of JJP MLAs. He even hinted at the present rebellion by the MLAs, saying Dushyant had the support of only his mother and Badhra MLA Naina Chautala. Babli was upset about the JJP allegedly trying to overthrow the BJP government to bolster the Congress.

One of the seniormost members of the Haryana Assembly, 77-year-old Ishwar Singh, said he will join the Congress.

Ramkaran Kala, who joined the Congress on Wednesday (August 21), said the grand old party was the "voice of the people" and is sure to win the polls. Surajkhera and Sihag, who quit JJP on Thursday, are likely to join the BJP.

Dushyant Chautala has already approached Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, seeking disqualification of the rebel MLAs.

Which MLAs Are Still With Dushyant Singh Chautala?

Currently, there are only four JJP MLAs left in the party. They include Dushyant and his mother Naina. Narnaud MLA Ram Kumar Gautam is known to have had differences with the Chautalas in the past, to the extent of Dushyant seeking his resignation. Thus, the JJP could see another loss. This leaves the party with only one non-Chautala MLA — Amarjeet Dhanda from Julana.

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What The Exits Mean For Chautala, JJP, and Haryana

The back-to-back exits of MLAs do not bode well for the JJP's future. The Chautalas will have to rethink the JJP's election strategy and they have to think fast. With the party having fallen out with the BJP recently, there is no chance of rekindling the alliance.

Meanwhile, the Congress has said that it would go solo in the assembly election and so would debutant AAP, which is desperately looking to expand beyond Delhi and Punjab.

The JJP lost significant support in the state when it allied with the BJP after the 2019 Vidhan Sabha election amid the farmers' protests. The JJP, which debuted in the 2019 polls, had a 14.8% vote share to its credit. This was big, considering that the party was less than a year old at the time. However, the 'Chautala' name alone could not buoy it enough in the Lok Sabha polls after its alliance blunder as it got less than 1% votes in the general elections.

Thus, the entire Opposition — including the INLD, led by Ajay's brother and Dushyant's uncle, Om Prakash Chautala — is divided.

The BJP, too, has been hit by 'Aya Ram, Gaya Ram' politics, which essentially began in Haryana. First, the three independents —Randhir Gollen, Sombir Sangwan, and Dharampal Gonder — who backed the BJP government, withdrew their support in May along with the JJP. They are now reportedly leaning towards the Congress. 

To top that, the rebellious tone of Chaudhary Ranjit Singh Chautala will have the BJP worried. Moreover, a jittery Kamal Gupta — who wrested the Jindal family bastion, Hisar, for the BJP in 2014 — will have to be placated as Naveen Jindal's mother Savitri Jindal recently moved to the BJP.

A confident Congress has claimed that at least 45 major leaders from opposing parties have joined the party. A recent opinion poll (on Lok Sabha constituencies) by India Today also gave Congress the upper hand.

But what could give the BJP an edge is the fact that the INDIA bloc is not in Haryana. A fractured Opposition and defections from JJP and Congress are what the BJP hopes to work in its favour.

The Haryana election will be held in a single phase with polling on October 1. The results will be declared on October 4.