Ready To Support Congress In Rajya Sabha Election: BJP's Ex Haryana Ally

Jannayak Janta Party leader Dushyant Chautala on Thursday said his party is ready to support the Congress in the Rajya Sabha election and ruled out any alliance with the ruling BJP in Haryana before or after the next Assembly polls.

The JJP's four-and-a-half-year alliance with the BJP came to an end after the saffron party replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini as chief minister in March.

In the recently held general elections, JJP fielded candidates in all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana but drew a blank. Congress' Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda won the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat, leading to a seat in the Upper House of Parliament becoming vacant.

At his first news conference here after the announcement of Lok Sabha results, Mr Chautala, the former Haryana deputy chief minister, was asked how much his party had benefited or lost because of its earlier tie-up with the BJP.

The recent Lok Sabha results have shown that "what BJP had to face, we too had to face that", Mr Chautala said and admitted that his JJP also bore the brunt of farmers' anger.

Dushyant Chautala, whoc is the son of JJP chief Ajay Singh Chautala, said the party will in the next few weeks seek feedback from its workers and then decide on entering into an alliance with any party other than the BJP for the Assembly polls slated to be held in the next few months.

Ruling out any truck with BJP, he said, "I can make it clear there is no point of going with the BJP in future. Even after elections, we will not have any truck with BJP."

Dushyant Chautala claimed that the JJP's loss in the Lok Sabha polls was "because of our alliance with the BJP".

About a Rajya Sabha seat from Haryana falling vacant following Deepender Hooda's election to the Lok Sabha, the JJP leader said his party is ready to support the Congress for the Upper House polls, provided they field a prominent personality or an eminent sportsperson as a candidate.

The Congress is the main opposition in Haryana but leader of opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda has remarked that other outfits should join hands and field a candidate as the party does not have the required numbers to put up its candidate, Mr Chautala said.

He said, "If the Congress really wants to take on the BJP, they should not look at win or loss. If they put up any candidate which is acceptable, we will support them. The candidate can be any prominent personality or eminent person, including from the sports field and he can be joint candidate of the opposition."

But if the Congress actually does not want to put up its candidate when polls are held for the Rajya Sabha seat, it would indicate that "there is match-fixing between Congress and BJP", Chautala said.

"If our party had around 30 MLAs like the Congress, we would have definitely fielded our candidate without thinking about winning or losing," he added,

About the Assembly polls in the state, Mr Chautala said the JJP will hold meetings with party workers from July 5 to seek feedback and to rebuild the organisation. "The focus is to make our organisation ready for the assembly poll," he said.

In reply to a question, Mr Chautala alleged both the BJP and the Congress were working to weaken regional parties.

Hitting out at the Nayab Singh Saini-led BJP government in Haryana on the law-and-order front, the JJP leader demanded the state should have "a full-time home minister".

To another question, Mr Chautala reiterated that the Saini government has been in the "minority" after three Independents withdrew their support last month.

"As against the Assembly's effective strength of 86, BJP has the support of 43, but the majority mark is 44," he said, adding the JJP has written to the Haryana Governor, urging him to hold a floor test.

Mr Chautala also said that party leaders will meet the Assembly Speaker and seek the disqualification of two JJP MLAs.

The JJP recently moved a petition before the Haryana Assembly Speaker, seeking the disqualification of two party MLAs -- Ramniwas Surjakhera and Jogi Ram Sihag -- under the anti-defection law for allegedly indulging in anti-party activities.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)