With questions being raised over the future of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s ruling alliance with the Jannayak Janta Party ( JJP) in Haryana after a section of the JJP legislators extended support to the farmers protesting against the BJP-led Centre’s controversial new farm laws, JJP leader and Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala today sided with the BJP dispensation, saying that the Centre has accepted the farmers’ demand for assuring minimum support price (MSP) of crops.
“The Centre has accepted the demand of the farmers by assuring the MSP in writing. It is now up to the farmers’ unions to decide on it,” he told reporters.
Dushyant said the demand of the farmers that the Union government must ensure MSP in writing has been fulfilled yesterday. “It is now up to the farmers’ unions to decide the next course of action on the government proposal,” he said.
On his party leaders lending support to the protesting farmers, he said: “I am saying that I am a farmer first. When did I ever deny that? But it is our responsibility to ensure an adequate price for their crops.”
Earlier, his younger brother Digvijay Chautala had said Dushyant Chautala had been in constant talks with the central leadership over the protest by the farmers, saying “the party is of the farmers and for the farmers”.
“Dushyant Chautala is constantly holding talks with the Union ministers and he is advocating the cause of the farmers so that they do not face problems,” he had said.
“The 10 legislators of our party were born in farmers’ houses. How is it possible that we are not concerned about the issues of the farmers? The farmers should be listened to, the government should make whatever changes needed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is a farmer’s government,” he had claimed.
The JJP has been facing criticism within the party for not walking out of the alliance on the issue of the farmers’ protest and “clinging to power”.
In an alliance, the JJP had extended support to the BJP, which won 40 seats in the 2019 Haryana Assembly polls, which was six short of the simple majority mark.
The JJP has been facing the ire of the people on Twitter with thousands trolling Dushyant Chautala by using the hashtag “Dushyant_Kisan Ya_Kursi” with more than two lakh tweets being issued till Thursday evening.
The JJP, a breakaway faction of the state’s once prominent regional outfit Indian National Lok Dal, is primarily a rural Jat-centric party with the farmers being its core vote bank. The Jat, a dominant farming community, comprises 28 per cent of the state’s population.