Chandigarh: Former Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) legislators, Anoop Dhanak, Ram Kumar Gautam and Jogi Ram Sihag, who quit the former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chauatala-led JJP, a few days ago, joined BJP at its rally in Jind on Sunday, giving the ruling party a boost ahead of October 5 assembly polls.
For record, JJP was a BJP ally since 2019 but the saffron party snapped ties with it in March this year.
The three leaders named above along with Ambala mayor Shakti Rani Sharma were welcomed into the party fold by chief minister Nayab Saini, state party chief Mohan Lal Badoli and party state co-incharge Biplab Kumar Deb at a rally in Jind.
Shakti Rani is wife of Haryana Janchetna Party chief and former Union minister Venod Sharma and mother of Rajya Sabha member Kartikeya Sharma, who was also present on the occasion. Model Jessica Lal’s murder convict Manu Sharma is her elder son.
Gautam, who was in BJP earlier, had won from Narnaund seat in 2019 on JJP ticket. He, however, openly spoke against Dushyant, understandably, for not getting a ministerial berth in the BJP-JJP coalition government.
Dhanak, a former minister in the BJP-JJP combine government, was an MLA from Uklana while Sihag was Barwala MLA. It may be recalled that another leader Ram Niwas Surjakhera, was also expected to join BJP at the rally though he was conspicuous for his absence.
All the four leaders had been opening siding with BJP and also extended support to BJP nominee Kiran Choudhry - a former senior Congress leader who had recently joined BJP – for the recent Rajya Sabha bypoll in which she was elected unopposed.
Surjakhera, however, was recently booked on charge of rape by a Jind police though he had rubbished the allegations as ``conspiracy’’ against him ahead of assembly polls.
Meanwhile, the development was being seen as a major blow to the JJP which had suffered an internal crisis with six of its total 10 MLAs leaving the party just a few weeks ahead of the upcoming polls; three of them joined the BJP Sunday.
