Mahayuti’s Landslide
The Mahayuti alliance’s landslide win in the Maharashtra Assembly elections marks a stunning comeback for the BJP and its partners.
In a major setback for the one-year-old Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), which formed the Haryana government in a post-poll alliance with the BJP, its senior leader and National Vice President Ram Kumar Gautam on Wednesday resigned from his post.
Speaking to reporters, Gautam said that he was “hurt” not because he was not given ministership but because he was “not informed” of an alleged “meeting of the JJP-BJP alliance at a mall in Gurgaon” before forming the government.
However, Gautam, 73, has not resigned from the party’s membership.
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“I will leave the party the day I cease to become an MLA,” he said.
He said JJP chief and Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala has forgotten “his family after coming to the helm”, adding that “Most of the legislators in the party are upset with Dushyant”.
“I am upset because they sealed the alliance in Ambience Mall and when we got to know we were very hurt. People are hurt and all the MLAs are very upset. Dushyant took all the plum posts. What about the rest of the MLAs? Haven’t they been voted by people? It is a huge blow,” the senior party leader further said.
“He said he will test us in three months. Who are you to test us,” he continued.
However, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala has said that he is not aware of the development.
“I just came to know from you and I will speak to him (Gautam),” he said.
In the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the Congress has 31 MLAs, the BJP 40 and the JJP 10.
The BJP, which fell 6 seats short of a majority, formed the government in Haryana in alliance with the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), with the latter’s Dushyant Chautala as the Deputy Chief Minister.
With Dushyant Chautala’s decision to align with the BJP, the Chautala clan has made a comeback to power after 15 years, when the JJP leader’s grandfather Om Prakash Chautala was defeated by the Congress in the 2004 elections.
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