Abhay Singh Chautala, Secretary General of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), announced on Thursday that the INLD and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will join forces to contest the upcoming Haryana elections. During a press conference, Chautala stated, “In Haryana, we have decided to jointly fight the upcoming assembly elections. Today, the feeling of common people is to oust the BJP from power and keep the Congress party at bay, which looted the state for 10 years earlier.”
Chautala further accused Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda of being an “agent” of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying, “Former CM and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda is an agent of the BJP. He has proved that he works as an agent…We will fulfil all the promises.”
BSP supremo Mayawati, in announcing the alliance, emphasized the parties’ commitment to removing the Congress and BJP, which she described as “anti-people” parties. “Bahujan Samaj Party and Indian National Lok Dal will fight the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana together with the resolve to defeat the anti-people parties and form a new coalition government, which was announced in a joint press conference in Chandigarh today with my full blessings,” she posted on X.
Mayawati added, “We have resolved to form a welfare government for all the sections of the society in Haryana. There has been complete unity and agreement in the distribution of seats etc. in this alliance by giving full respect to each other. I have full hope that this mutual unity will defeat the opponents with the blessings of the people and form a new government.”
Akash Anand, BSP national coordinator, expressed confidence in the coalition’s potential to deliver positive results in Haryana. “If you go to the villages and talk to the people, you will know how much anger and resentment is there among the people here, how their voices were not heard, how work was not done for them. We feel that the coalition government will be able to give very good results here. We are confident that we will form the government,” he told ANI.
Previously, Abhay Singh Chautala had met BSP president Mayawati at her residence in Lucknow on July 6. Akash Anand mentioned, “In that meeting, it had been decided that out of 90 assembly seats in Haryana, the BSP will contest on 37 seats.”
In the 2019 Haryana Assembly elections, the BJP won 40 seats, the Congress secured 31 seats, the JJP obtained 10 seats, and the INLD managed to win 1 seat. The Haryana Assembly elections are scheduled to be held this year for all 90 seats.