The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will from the government in Haryana in alliance with the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), with the latter’s Dushyant Chautala as the Deputy Chief Minister. The deal for government formation was sealed late on Friday.

In a day of fast-moving developments, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur first arrived at the residence of Dushyant Chautala at 18 Janpath and then took him along in his vehicle to Home Minister and BJP President Amit Shah’s residence.

Advertisement

At Shah’s residence, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar was also present with BJP working President JP Nadda. After initial talks, the leaders addressed a joint press conference where Shah made in the announcement of the formation of an alliance government.

“Keeping in mind the mandate of the people, leaders of BJP and JJP have decided that the two parties will form a government in Haryana together. The Chief Minister will be from the BJP and the deputy chief minister will be from JJP,” Amit Shah announced at a news briefing, flanked by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Kahttar and Dushyant Chautala.

JJP chief Dushyant Chautala said that his party has decided to support the BJP “for the stability of the government in Haryana”.

CM Khattar said that the party has called a meeting of the legislators and will meet the Governor on Saturday to stake their claim.

The top performer in the polls was the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) with 40 seats but fell short of 6 seats to form the government in the state. The Congress, the runner-up in the polls, managed to get 31 seats. JJP emerged as the kingmaker with 10 seats in the state.

The BJP, which had secured the support of seven Independents as well as former minister Gopal Kanda, decided not to include the latter’s name in the list of MLAs supporting it, after the party faced large-scale ire on social media for taking his support. Kanda is accused abetting the suicides of his then airline’s employee, Geetika Sharma, in 2012, and her mother early next year.

With Dushyant Chautala’s decision to align with the BJP, the Chautala clan is making 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.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, Dushyant had said that JJP will support any party in Haryana that accepts their common minimum programme.

“The party which will agree to our Common Minimum Program under which we had taken the resolution of 75% jobs reservation for Haryanvis, and that of Chaudhary Devi Lal’s idea of old age pension, JJP will give its support to that party,” Chautala said.

“For a stable government, the key lies with the JJP. No one is untouchable for us. We have not decided who to support,” Chautala said.

“I leave it to my MLAs to decide,” he added.

It is to be noted that the JJP fought on the Jat plank, targeting the BJP.