Chandigarh: Former minister and a rebel MLA of Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) - a former ally of BJP, Devender Babli on Monday joined ruling BJP in Haryana, ahead of upcoming October 5 assembly elections in the state.
Though Babli was initially likely to join Congress, given his open support to the Congress candidate Kumari Selja in the recent Sirsa Lok Sabha election, he finally hopped over to the saffron party after failing to get an assurance for Congress ticket from Tohana assembly segment from where he is the the sitting MLA.
It may be recalled that Babli had won Tohana seat by trouncing the then BJP state chief Subhash Barala by a margin of over 1 lakh votes in 2019 assembly elections.
Babli’s joining is being seen as a major boost to the ruling BJP as three JJP rebel legislators - Anoop Dhanak, Ram Kumar Gautam and Jogi Ram Sihag - who had quit the former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chauatala-led JJP, a few days ago, joined BJP at its rally in Jind only on Sunday.
Moreover, another rebel MLA of JJP, from Narwana, Ram Niwas Surjakhera, was also likely to join BJP, though the development was delayed after he was recently booked on charge of rape by Jind police. He has rubbished the allegations as ``conspiracy’’ against him ahead of assembly polls.
Meanwhile, the joinings by JJP leaders was being seen as a major blow to the JJP which had suffered an internal crisis with seven of its total 10 MLAs leaving the party just a few weeks ahead of the upcoming polls.
For record, JJP, which had won 10 seats had stitched an alliance with BJP – which had won 40 seats out of total 90 seats – and had remained BJP's ally since 2019, until the saffron party snapped ties with it in March this year.
The JJP is in a deep crisis and fighting a battle for survival as it has now been left with just three MLA – Dushyant, his mother Naina Chautala and Amarjeet Dhanda.
Meanwhile, Sunil Sangwan, son of Satpal Sangwan, a former minister in Congress government, also joined BJP along with another former JJP leader Sanjay Kablana.
