The Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) leader Dushyant Singh Chautala and the Azad Samaj Party (ASP) (Kanshi Ram) leader Chandra Shekhar Azad on Tuesday announced their alliance ahead of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha Elections set to take place in October. This alliance comes as a departure from JJP’s long-standing alliance with BJP’s NDA. The alliance has been formed primarily to woo the Dalit votes that constitute 21% of Haryana’s population.
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The Kanshi Ram- Devi Lal Syndicate
In a press conference held at the Constitution Club in New Delhi yesterday, JJP and ASP announced that they have joined forces to compete in the Haryana Elections that will be held in one phase on October 1st this year. The results are set to be declared on October 4th. To prepare for the race to the CM’s position, JJP and ASP declared that they will be contesting the 90 Vidhan Sabha seats in a 70- 20 portion respectively.
Mr. Dushyant has elucidated his support for the farmers. The alliance between the two parties aims at ensuring minimum wage for the farmers and security for the MSP. He also recalled how his great- grandfather Chaudhary Devi Lal was the first one to publicly support Kanshi Ram’s protest to award Dr B.R Ambedkar with a Bharat Ratna. When Mr. Lal became Deputy PM, it was his efforts that not only bestowed Dr Ambedkar with the honour but also led to his statue being erected at the Parliament.
Chautala claimed that as the CM, Mr. Devi Lal had worked to uplift the backward classes and built many SC chaupals in Haryana. During his time in the state government, he also made efforts to redevelop these chaupals. The JJP-ASP alliance is set to target the minority vote bank in the state. JJP has an impressive Jat backing in the state which has 26% Jat population while the ASP is expected to fare well in the Dalit community.
JJP’s exit from BJP’s NDA
The JJP played a major role in the last Haryana Elections by forming an alliance with BJP which helped the latter in forming the government with the addition of 10 MLAs from the JJP. However, party leader Dushyant Singh Chautala has parted ways with the PM’s party after four-and-a-half-years. Chandra Shekhar Azad stated that they will exclusively be working with those who have common interests and that “old mistakes will not be repeated”, alluding to JJP’s share in the NDA.
According to Mr. Chautala, Haryana’s population does not want BJP any longer and the Congress has been suffering due to the lack of strong figure (for the CM) in the state. He also went on to explain that his alliance with the NDA in the recent Lok Sabha elections existed solely because it involved a rivalry between two national-level blocs. This clarified that the state-level elections would be witnessing a different dynamic.
BJP might not perform well in Haryana due to the various issues people have with the government. The wrestlers’ and farmers’ protest, anger over the Agnipath scheme along with the resentment among the Jats will likely dwindle support for BJP.
