With efforts on to form an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance across the country before 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Haryana’s main Opposition party Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) on Monday expressed willingness to join such an alliance if the Congress was kept out of it.

The INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala said if his party is invited to join the anti-BJP and anti-Congress alliance, the Om Parkash Chautala-led outfit will be willing to join the same.

“For discussing our strategy for 2019 Parliamentary polls, out political affairs committee had a meeting in New Delhi on 6 April. In it, we have decided that we (INLD) will not join any alliance with the BJP or the Congress. But if are invited to join a anti-BJP and anti-Congress alliance, we will join it,” he said while addressing a Press conference.

While the BJP is ruling party in Haryana, Congress ruled the state before the saffron party for a decade. The INLD is out of power in the state for the past thirteen years.

Indicating the INLD’s willingness to join the anti-BJP alliance minus its main rival in Haryana (Congress), Abhay Singh Chautala had met the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had met BSP supremo Mayawati in January on her birthday.

“I had gone there to wish Mayawati on her birthday. Nothing else was discussed in the meeting,” Chautala, who leads the INLD in absence of his father (Om Parkash Chautala) and elder brother Ajay Singh Chautala who are serving jail sentence for their role in a recruitment scam.

He said BSP and INLD have shared close ties in the past. “BSP founder (late) Kanshi Ram and Devi Lal (former deputy Prime Minister who formed the INLD) had close relations and we have fought elections together in the past,” Chautala said indicating his party’s willingness for an alliance with the BSP in Haryana for Parliamentary as well as Assembly elections in 2019.

While the INLD polled 24.43 per cent votes in 2014 Lok Sabha polls and won two seats, the BSP polled 4.60 per cent votes in the state. In 2014 Assembly polls, the BSP polled 4.37 per cent votes and won one seat while the INLD polled won 19 seats by polling 24.11 per cent votes.

As both parties have hold on to their respective vote share despite being in Opposition, the coming together of INLD-BSP could help in boosting the chances of giving a good fight to both, BJP and Congress, through a seat-sharing arrangement for Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.