With the hung verdict in the Haryana polls, the picture of who will form the government is blur. The top performer in the polls, Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) with 40 seats fell short of 6 seats to form the government in the state. Meanwhile, Congress, the runner-up in the polls, managed to get 31 seats, better than the last elections.
In the tug of war for the claim of power, Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) emerged as the king maker with 10 seats in the state. Yesterday when the counting was going on, and the Congress seemed to approach close to 30-35 mark, the Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi expressed her willingness to form an alliance with JJP.
With Congress securing only 31 seats which is not sufficient to form the government in the state even if the JJP comes to support with its 10 seats, the JJP has shown its interest to support the BJP too as the JJP chief Dushyant Chautala on Friday said at a media briefing in the national capital, “we will support any party in Haryana that accepts our 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 at the media briefing.
“For a stable government, the key lies with the JJP. No one is untouchable for us. We have not decided who to support,” Dushyant Chautala said.
“I leave it to my MLAs to decide,” he added.
Perhaps, eager to form the government in the state, Congress leader BS Hooda said, “as far as Common Minimum Program is concerned, it’s already provided in our manifesto, be it old age pension or 75 per cent job reservation for Haryanvis. If he has other suggestions, we’re open to that. Now it’s upto him.”
On the other hand, Haryana JJP president, Sardar Nishant Singh, said that their party has received an invitation from both BJP and Congress and added that it will take a decision only after discussing with the elected candidates.
“We have invitation from both the sides. We will take our decision only after discussing with our elected candidates. If there is no clear majority for BJP, obviously the mandate is against them. We will decide our stand after the meeting, he told reporters earlier today.
However, eight independent MLAs have pledged their ‘unconditional support’ to BJP, the party is keen to have JJP in the alliance.
It is to be noted that the JJP fought on the Jat plank, targeting BJP.