Will Dushyant Chautala Join Hands With Azad Samaj Party's Chandrashekhar Azad For Haryana Polls?

JJP founder Chautala praised Azad Samaj Party founder Chandrashekhar Azad and called him a team man.

Haryana Assembly Elections 2024: Ahead of Assembly elections in Haryana, Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) founder Dushyant Chautala said that Chandra Sekhar Azad of Azad Samaj Party would be a better ally than Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). In an interview to news agency ANI, Chautala praised Azad Samaj Party founder Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan and called him a team man.

In an interview with ANI, the former Deputy Chief Minister of Haryana said, "Not BSP but Azad Samaj Party would be a better ally. Azad is young, works on the field, has a good team, and has the charisma of Kanshi Ram. Mayawati does not have that charisma now."

Assembly polls in Haryana are set to be held on October 1 across 90 constituencies in 22 districts. The counting of votes will be held on October 4.

Meanwhile, former state Home Minister Anil Vij on Monday claimed victory of the BJP in the forthcoming state Assembly polls, saying the regional parties were “now finished and the contest is only with the Congress, and we will easily defeat the Congress because they have committed so many sins.”

In a jolt to the JJP ahead of the Assembly elections, its four MLAs on Saturday resigned from all party positions and their primary memberships.

A total of six legislators out of 10 have left the party. The four MLAs are former minister Anoop Dhanak, Devender Babli, Ram Karan Kala and Ishwar Singh. They have resigned from party posts, citing personal reasons.

Now only three legislators are in the party. They are Naina Chautala (Dushyant’s mother), MLA from the Badhra segment in Bhiwani district; Dushyant, MLA from Uchana Kalan in Jind, and Amarjeet Dhanda, MLA from the Julana segment in Jind. Other MLAs Ram Niwas Suraj Khera and Jogi Ram Singh have been facing disqualification charges.

Ram Kumar Gautam was the first MLA to resign from the party. In October 2019, the BJP, which won 40 seats and was six short of a majority in the 90-member Assembly, formed the government in alliance with the then newly-formed JJP led by Dushyant Chautala, who was Manohar Lal Khattar’s deputy in the government.

In March, the new government was formed under the helm of Nayab Singh Saini after the BJP severed its four-and-a-half-year-old ties with the JJP. Saini succeeded Khattar, who is now a Union Minister.