Despite Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s decision to continue the alliance with Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), heated arguments between leaders of both parties continue to surface. The BJP in Haryana is leaving no stone unturned to put pressure on its partner and seems to have succeeded to some extent. Political experts believe that as the forthcoming polls draw close, the verbal spats between both camps will continue in a bid to prove their dominance over each other.
Additionally, to ensure a victory in the elections to be held next year, the BJP’s high command has been gathering information about the party’s position in the state so that timely steps can be taken to strengthen the party in Haryana. These inputs come from the six independent MLAs who recently met the state party in-charge Biplab Deb, and are being taken into serious consideration. With the support of six independent MLA’s including Randhir Golan from Pundri, Balram Kundu from Meham, Ranjit Singh from Raniya, Rakesh Daulatabad from Badshahpur, Somveer Sangwan from Dadri, Dharmapal Gondar from Nilokheri, along with Gopal Kanda, an MLA from HLP, the BJP has been subliminally hinting to the JJP that it can run the government even without support from its alliance partner.
Apart from the support of six Independents, the BJP has 41 MLAs which fulfils the criteria of majority in the state. A senior BJP leader said the party’s high command has been the final authority to take the final call pertaining to an alliance with the JJP. “We are showing the JJP that the BJP was always in the driver’s seat and will retain control,” he added.
It is also evident that many veteran BJP leaders are upset with the JJP. Most of these are leaders who had once left the Congress and joined the BJP. Pertaining to the alliance with JJP, party veteran Chaudhary Birender Singh has been continuously saying that BJP should break away from JJP as he has a political rivalry with Dushyant Chautala and his family for dominance. However, the BJP has made it clear that it will not come under unilateral pressure from any leaders irrespective of their stature. Similarly, party bigwig Rao Inderjit has also expressed his displeasure with the party many times but BJP has also advised him to stay within party lines.