With Parliamentary polls drawing near, Haryana is witnessing political turmoil as a new development surfaced in the state politics after the three independent MLAs Randhir Golan, Dharampal Gondar and Somveer Sangwan withdrew support to the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).
In the wake of this, the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) stalwart Dushyant Chautala and former ally of the saffron BJP on Thursday wrote to Bandaru Dattatrey seeking a floor test in the assembly. He said that he would back the main opposition Congress against the BJP government in the state. The entire opposition is persistently demanding imposition of President’s rule in Haryana, citing that the BJP lacks majority and the saffron party is not in a position of running government with 43 MLAs—BJP-40, Independenst-2 and Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP)-1.
Meanwhile, it has come to fore that a couple of JJP MLAs, who are said to to be disgruntled with the JJP leadership and Dushyant Chautala, , might resign from the membership of assembly which is most likely to help the BJP to prove the majority easily.
Congress heavyweight and Leader of Opposition Bhupender Singh Hooda had moved a no confidence motion earlier against the BJP government but Nayab Singh Saini-led government won the trust vote.
Technically, two confidence motions cannot be moved within a period of six months. Regarding the issue, Hooda said that the Chief Minister should resign as the state government is in minority.
JJP is a divided house in the state as out of the 10 MLAs, six of them –Ramkumar Gautam from Narnaund, Jogi Ram Sihag from Barwala, Ishwar Singh from Guhla, Ramniwas Surjakheda from Narwana, Devendra Babli from Tohana and party MLA Ramkaran Kala from Shahabad are disgruntled with the party. Although Ishwar Singh has announced his retirement from active politics, at present Ramkaran Kala is not very active in politics.
However, both his sons had recently joined Congress.
Similarly, another faction in the party comprises Uchana MLA Dushyant Chautala’s mother and MLA Naina Chautala from Badhra, Amarjeet Dhanda from Julana and Anoop Dhanak from Uklana. It is believed that among the three MLAs who are upset with the party, Devendra Babli, Ramniwas Surja Kheda and Jogiram Sihag might resign and bring the BJP government out of the crisis. However, while reacting to the speculations and the possibility of his resignation, he denied the same.
In the 88 Members house, the BJP needs 45 MLAs to run the government. Currently having the support of 40 party MLA’a along with the support of two independent MLAs and the lone HLP MLA, taking its tally to 43, the saffron BJP needs the support of two more MLAs.
With the claimed support of three of the JJP’s 10 MLAs, the BJP’s numbers go up to 46, one more than the magic number required.
After the 3 of the JJP MLAs resign from the assembly members,the BJP will need the support of 43 MLAs in the 85 members House to stay in the government.
Now in this episode it has come to light that BJP has mulled over every possible strategy to stay in power. One of the BJP MLAs said on anonymity that many MLAs of JJP, former ally of BJP in the government, may resign and in doing so, the total number of assembly members i.e. MLAs will reduce and BJP will not need more MLAs to run the government. Former CM Manohar Lal and independent Ranjit Singh who have been fielded by the BJP from Karnala and Hisar Lok Sabha seats, resigned to contest the Lok Sabha elections. In this situation, with 2 seats lying vacant there are a total of 90 MLAs in the Haryana Assembly.
Since the elections are near, the opposition is continuously attacking the BJP, accusing it of horse trading saying that the government is in the minority. The President’s rule should be immediately imposed in the state. Leader of Opposition and Congress veteran Bhupendra Singh Hooda has said that since there is very little time left for the elections, his party is not interested in forming the government. On the issue of supporting Congress by Dushyant Chautala to topple the government, Hooda said that if JJP wants this, then first write to the Governor.An expert Hemant Kumar in this regard said that there is no mention in the Constitution or Assembly rules about there being a gap of six months between two no-confidence motions.
According to many decisions of the Supreme Court, the majority or minority of the ruling government can be proved within the House itself. If Congress and JJP are really serious then they can give a memorandum to the Governor and direct the Nayab Saini government to seek a fresh trust vote in the House.
