INLD To Contest Haryana Assembly Election In Alliance With BSP. Abhay Singh Chautala To Be CM Face

Out of the 90 assembly seats, the BSP is likely to contest 37, with the remaining going to the INLD.

Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) Secretary General Abhay Singh Chautala announced on Thursday that the party will contest the upcoming Haryana assembly election in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) of former UP chief minister Mayawati. BSP national coordinator Akash Anand said Chautala and Mayawati held a detailed discussion about the seat-sharing arrangement on July 6. Out of the 90 assembly seats, the BSP is likely to contest 37, with the remaining 53 going to the INLD.

Anand, recently reinstated as the successor of Mayawati and the party's national coordinator, said Chautala would be appointed chief minister if the alliance wins.

Abhay Chautala is the son of former Haryana CM Om Prakash Chautala and uncle of former deputy CM Dushyant Chautala, who split from the INLD with his father Ajay Chautala (Abhay Chautala's elder brother) to form the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) in 2018.

Alliance With BSP Formed With People's Interests In Mind: Chautala

During the announcement, Abhay Chautala lashed out at the Haryana government, accusing the BJP of protecting criminals in the state.

An India Today report quoted Chautala as saying that the "government is supporting criminals". "What can the police do...? When the INLD was in power, things were handled better," he said.

Chautala said the alliance with the BSP was formed with the people's interests in mind, not out of selfish motives. "Today, the feeling of the common people is to oust the BJP from power and keep the Congress party, which looted the state for 10 years, at bay," he added. 

In the recently held Lok Sabha elections, both the INLD and the BSP fared poorly. The BSP contested nine of the state's 10 parliamentary seats, while the INLD fielded candidates in seven seats. However, neither won a seat. 

The BSP and the INLD have allied earlier as well, but the former ended it after nine months, just before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, amid the internal feud within the Chautala family. At the time, INLD was the primary Opposition party.

After the JJP was formed, it contested the 2019 assembly election and forged a post-poll alliance with the BJP to form the government. The BJP won 40 seats in the assembly polls while the JJP secured 10 seats. In March this year, the alliance broke amid a deep churn in state politics that also saw Nayab Singh Saini replace Manohar Lal Khattar as chief minister in the BJP-led state.