Khattar, Chautala to be sworn in today
by R. VenuGopal, Bharat Times
New Delhi, 27 October: With 10 seats in the assembly, Jannayak Janta party’s Dushyant Chautala has joined hands with the BJP after the assembly polls left the BJP 6 seats short of a complete majority. The voters are stunned but vocal on social media of this “wed-lock” of political convenience which will primarily fulfil ambitions of two people – Manohar Lal Khattar who will be the Chief Minister and Dushyant Chautala who gets the post of Deputy Chief Minister.
Contrary to the expectations of the BJP and its chieftains and their fans, the 2019 Haryana elections threw a hung parliament. The horse-trading started immediately in earnest. While the biggest winner in the 2019 election – the Congress party having increased its tally from 15 (in 2014) to 31 in 2019, entertained some hope of being able to throw some dangling carrots around to reach the magic number of 46 in a 90 seat assembly, the only real prospect was of the BJP with 40 seats and the government in the Centre, to be able to muster 6 MLAs to reach that number.
And the real target for the BJP and the Congress was Dushyant Chautala’s JJP. The Congress party number crunchers were, perhaps relying on the campaign strategy of the JJP and an open agenda of Dushyant Chautala during campaigning – criticising the BJP state government and ML Khattar’s handling of the state for the last five years. Dishyant even likened the deaths in Panchkula to Jalianwal Bagh massacre. He was vocal criticising the Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well.
And the voter – as they are showing their anger on Twitter – thought – their vote to Dushyant Chautala’s JJP was a vote against the BJP and ML Khattar. They are saying his entire campaign for the state assembly elections had hinged on pointing out faults with the ruling party.
A few months ago, he had even tweeted out a video criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Tell me, Modiji, have you forgotten about the riots that erupted in Gujarat when you were its Chief Minister? Were you able to get them justice? While you were the Prime Minister, there was unrest in Haryana. Did you ever turn to look at them. When your government used guns on Dera supporters at Panchkula, why did you remain silent? When you tried to tarnish the image of our state in Murthal, did you come and try to understand that situation even once?” Dushyant Chautala is heard saying in the clip.
To irk the BJP and appealing to the voters, in his campaign, Dushyant Chautala referred:
the 2002 Gujarat riots;
the Jat reservation agitation in 2016;
that left Haryana paralysed for nearly 10 days; and
the death of at least 32 people in police firing
following the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in 2017,
among other issues. NDTV Delhi has put together a video collage of some of what Dushyant Chautala had said during the election campaign.
Giving them their biggest Diwali 2-19 gift in Chandigarh today, ML Khattar and Dushyant Chautala will be administered an oath of office as the CM and Dy CM.
The politician had joined hands with the BJP after the assembly polls came up with a fractured verdict, awarding 31 seats to the Congress, 40 to the BJP and 10 to the JJP. He is slated to be appointed as Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s deputy, and will be sworn in on Sunday.
As expected, the Congress has launched a scathing attack on Dushyant Chautala.
“When the BJP wants to gain power by dividing society, somebody will always volunteer to be its puppet — whether its a Raj Kumar Saini or the JJP-Lok Dal,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted.
Adding that the people of Haryana should now know the “real” Dushyant Chautala, Surjewala asserted that the JJP was and always will be the BJP’s “B-team”.
Also, a former Border Security Force jawan and member of the JJP, Tej Bahadur Yadav has resigned from the party saying through his Facebook post “Dushyant Chautala has betrayed the people of Haryana and those who voted for him by supporting the BJP to form the government. The people who gave the JJP 10 seats did so not because of him or the JJP name, but because of the ideals of Devi Lal.”