Pushed to Haryana margins from kingmaker, Dushyant braces for uphill task to revive JJP

But the bonhomie between the BJP and the JJP lasted only for four-and-a-half-years. In March this year, the BJP suddenly snapped ties with the JJP. The BJP leadership replaced Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini as the CM, fielding Khattar in the Lok Sabha polls.

Dushyant and his party were left in a precarious position, even as the BJP said its government had the support of three Independent MLAs. Since then, the JJP has been battling challenges on multiple fronts.

Dushyant’s MLAs have been vocal against him, openly criticising him and his policies.

Three JJP MLAs have left the party for the BJP, saying “they were impressed with the BJP’s functioning, vision and futuristic policies”. In another blow to the JJP leadership in April this year, the party’s Haryana unit president Nishan Singh also quit to join the Congress.

Then came the Lok Sabha polls. The JJP contested on all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. However, it could barely get 0.87% of the votes polled, with all the party candidates losing their security deposits.

Following the poll results, all district units of the JJP were dissolved. But the party seems to be attempting to get going before the Assembly polls slated for October this year.

The JJP leadership — involving Dushyant, his father and national party president Ajay Chautala, mother Naina Chautala, and younger brother Digvijay Chautala — have been actively touring the state and holding meetings with party workers in their attempts to boost the cadre’s morale.

Ajay and Dushyant are also holding the meetings of party workers on a daily basis. On Friday, they campaigned in Panipat and Yamunanagar and held district level meetings. They covered Ambala and Panchkula on Saturday.

“Many times, Chaudhary Devi Lal (Dushyant’s grandfather and former Deputy Prime Minister) faced difficult times, but yet made a comeback and brought in change. Party workers should get on the field, keeping their morale and confidence high. With the support of all its party workers, JJP will definitely bring a change in the coming times,” Ajay told party workers in Panipat on Friday.

“It is quite evident that the JJP suffered loss by having an alliance with the BJP,” Ajay added.

Dushyant said the party workers should not be deterred by the outcome of the Lok Sabha polls, arguing that they are completely different from the Assembly polls.

“There are approximately 100 days to (the Assembly) polls. While we were part of the government, we did a lot of public welfare projects, but we were not able to generate awareness among people. JJP’s workers are quite committed and are capable of bringing a change in the state’s politics,” Dushyant said.

In the coming days, the JJP leadership would have to rebuild the party and secure its MLAs in order to open channels, if any, for a future partnership with the principal Opposition Congress.

In May, Dushyant had offered support to the Congress when it went to Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya to claim that the BJP has been reduced to a minority in the House.

Subsequently, in June, Dushyant offered to jointly field a candidate with the Congress for the Rajya Sabha polls that are scheduled for the end of July. But, Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly and ex-CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda says that he cannot count on the JJP’s support, adding that Dushyant does not have his flock together.

“How can he (Dushyant) talk of extending support to anybody. When the BJP government fell short of the majority, we wrote to the Governor to dissolve this minority government and hold fresh elections. Dushyant said that he was ready to offer support from outside. But, how could he have done that? I said that he should first get all his MLAs together. He could not and he cannot. His own MLAs are not with him anymore,” Hooda told The Indian Express.