CHANDIGARH: In a major blow to Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), four of its MLAs have quit the party within 24 hours.
JJP, led by former Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala‘s father Ajay Chautala, was ousted from power in March after its former ally BJP severed ties.
On Friday – the day Election Commission announced polls to the Haryana assembly on October 1 – Dushyant’s close aide and former minister Anoop Dhanak, an MLA from Uklana seat, left the party.On Saturday, Tohana MLA Devender Singh Babli, Guhla MLA Ishwar Singh and Shahabad MLA Ramkaran Kala sent their resignations to the party chief. All of them cited personal reasons.
Kala’s son has already joined Congress. Kala is seeking a Congress ticket from Shahabad (reserved) seat. Babli and Dhanak had served as ministers in the BJP-JJP coalition govt, while Kala and Ishwar Singh’s son held posts of chairmen in different boards and corporations from the JJP quota.
Apart from these four, three other legislators – Jogi Ram Sihag of Barwala, Ramniwas Surjakhera of Narwana and Ram Kumar Gautam of Narnaund – have already parted ways from JJP. Sihag, Surjakhera and Gautam had supported BJP candidates in the recently held Lok Sabha elections despite JJP fielding its candidates. Babli, on the other hand, had supported Congress candidates in the Lok Sabha polls. Gautam had snapped ties with Dushyant since the formation of the BJP-JJP coalition government in 2019 on the ground that he was ignored for a minister’s post despite being a senior leader.
With the resignation of these four MLAs, Dushyant is left with the support of three MLAs. Apart from Dushyant, an MLA from Uchana seat, the two others are Dushyant’s mother Naina Chautala from Badhra and Amarjeet Singh Dhanda from Julana.
When contacted, Randhir Singh, secretary, and in-charge, JJP, said that all these leaders had come from other parties and after enjoying power for more than four years, they have left.
JJP, led by former Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala‘s father Ajay Chautala, was ousted from power in March after its former ally BJP severed ties.
On Friday – the day Election Commission announced polls to the Haryana assembly on October 1 – Dushyant’s close aide and former minister Anoop Dhanak, an MLA from Uklana seat, left the party.On Saturday, Tohana MLA Devender Singh Babli, Guhla MLA Ishwar Singh and Shahabad MLA Ramkaran Kala sent their resignations to the party chief. All of them cited personal reasons.
Kala’s son has already joined Congress. Kala is seeking a Congress ticket from Shahabad (reserved) seat. Babli and Dhanak had served as ministers in the BJP-JJP coalition govt, while Kala and Ishwar Singh’s son held posts of chairmen in different boards and corporations from the JJP quota.
Apart from these four, three other legislators – Jogi Ram Sihag of Barwala, Ramniwas Surjakhera of Narwana and Ram Kumar Gautam of Narnaund – have already parted ways from JJP. Sihag, Surjakhera and Gautam had supported BJP candidates in the recently held Lok Sabha elections despite JJP fielding its candidates. Babli, on the other hand, had supported Congress candidates in the Lok Sabha polls. Gautam had snapped ties with Dushyant since the formation of the BJP-JJP coalition government in 2019 on the ground that he was ignored for a minister’s post despite being a senior leader.
With the resignation of these four MLAs, Dushyant is left with the support of three MLAs. Apart from Dushyant, an MLA from Uchana seat, the two others are Dushyant’s mother Naina Chautala from Badhra and Amarjeet Singh Dhanda from Julana.
When contacted, Randhir Singh, secretary, and in-charge, JJP, said that all these leaders had come from other parties and after enjoying power for more than four years, they have left.
Source Agencies
