Plight of stalwarts and ire of farmers adding to the woes of JJP ahead of LS polls

With the polls drawing near, all parties are gearing up for the parliamentary polls in a bid to mark victory on maximum seats in Haryana. The ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) emerges as the only party declaring candidates on all 10 Lok Sabha seats while the Congress main opposition party and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) remain undecided so far in terms of finalization candidates for Lok Sabha polls. The Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), a former ally of the BJP in power, declared candidates for five Hisar, Bhiwani -Mahendergarh, Gurugram, Faridabad and Sirsa Lok Sabha seats on Tuesday. Amidst the ongoing preparations of the polls, new political developments continue to surface in the state politics leaving everyone with new political speculations. Several candidates fielded by the BJP along with the JJP stalwarts are going through tough times in Haryana as are being denied by the farmers to enter villages. Political experts opine that the split with the BJP led to delayed consensus pertaining to declarations of the tickets for the JJP.

Apart from facing the displeasure and ire of farmers as well as party MLAs, the JJP is witnessing the continuous plight of the senior party leaders along with the MLAs adding to its woes ahead of polls. In recent times, many Lok Sabha candidates declared by BJP and especially JJP leaders are facing continuous opposition from the people. JJP leaders and mainly the Chautala family are facing the ire of the voters, especially of farmers and Jats. The JJP National President Dr. Ajay Chautala, his son and former Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala, and Digvijay Chautala were reportedly surrounded by hundreds of jeering and protesting farmers as well youth in rural areas in Bhiwani, Hisar and Sirsa districts respectively. The escalated situation forced them to cut short speech as well as hurry away as seen in the videos that went viral. As the parliamentary polls approach campaigning picks up steam, and the video of the farmers raising slogans and banners against the JJP leaders are being viral by the Congress and INLD leaders in a bid to gain political mileage in polls.

JJP, once an ally of the BJP government in Haryana, is facing continuous setbacks before the Lok Sabha elections. Following its split with the BJP, the state president of the party Nishan Singh has resigned from the post citing his negligence as well as differences with the party’s high command. In this row, party MLA Jogiram Sihag also bid a farewell citing anonymous reasons for his resignation, and reported getting close to the BJP candidate Ranjit Singh from Hisar. On the other hand, Meenu Beniwal, who was once loyal and close to JJP leaders and the party’s national president Dr. Ajay Singh Chautala, also resigned from the party and joined BJP. JJP’s national general secretary Kamlesh Saini also quit the party, due to which JJP suffered another blow. Apart from this, the party’s state general secretary Rekha Shakya has also increased the party’s troubles by resigning from the party’s membership. In such a situation, the JJP is going through a lot ahead of forthcoming polls in Haryana.

It is a noticeable fact that being in power as an ally of the BJP, the widened rift between the several party MLAs and the party leadership was witnessed continuously adding to the woes of the party. After several MLAs were denied the post of cabinet minister they were continuously upset with former Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala. The situation has now become even worse for the party, the JJP has been facing the ire of 5 out of 10 MLAs including former Devendra Babli, Ishwar Singh, Jogiram Sihag, Ramniwas Surja Kheda, and Ramkumar Gautam for a long time The displeasure and anger of aforementioned MLA’s is evident from the fact that despite the party’s whip directing the party MLAs to refrain from assembly sessions held recently, all of them remained present in the house. The main opposition party Congress is also leaving no stone unturned to cash in on the continuous opposition of JJP leaders. Apart from this, JJP is also facing a tough challenge from its arch-rivals INLD and Chautala family. Besides, terming the JJP a traitor, Abhay Chautala said that there is no place for the JJP in INLD.