Chandigarh: Former Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and Chandra Shekhar Azad’s Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) have stitched an alliance for the October 1 assembly election in the state.
According to the pre-poll tie-up, the JJP, a splinter outfit of the prominent Jat leader and five-time chief minister Om Prakash Chautala–led Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), will contest on 70 seats and the ASP, on the remaining 20 seats in Haryana which goes to polls on October 1 and results of which would be out on October 4.
Briefing newspersons in New Delhi on Tuesday, Dushyant and Chandra Shekhar said they would form a ``government of the youth’’ and fight for the rights and welfare of farmers.
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It may be recalled that the INLD had suffered a crippling split when Dushyant, the grandson of the party supremo Chautala Sr, formed JJP in 2018 due to an internal feud within the party. In 2019 assembly elections, resultantly, the INLD could win only one seat while JJP won 10. The JJP, on the other hand, also suffered an internal crisis with six of its total 10 MLAs leaving the party just a few weeks ahead of the upcoming polls.
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While the INLD has joined hands with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the JJP has forged an alliance with Azad’s party to give a fillip to their poll prospects. Both, INLD and JJP heavily banked on their traditional Jat vote-bank, comprising about 26% of the state’s population and also a major Dalit vote-bank.
However, the ruling BJP, which is eyeing a third term in row, has a straight fight with principal opposition party Congress which is led by tall Jat leader former two-time chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. According to pollsters, the JJP-ASP and INLD-BSP might cause a dent in the Jat and Dalit vote-banks, which could benefit BJP.
Meanwhile, stating that JJP is now fully in election mode, Dushyant on Wednesday said that an important meeting of the JJP's Political Affairs Committee is scheduled for September 2, during which most candidates for the assembly elections will be selected. He held that the alliance between JJP and Azad Samaj Party (ASP) will pave the way for progress in Haryana, with both parties jointly fighting for the rights of the poor, farmers, and laborers.
