In another blow to the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), two more MLAs – Ramniwas Surjakheda and Jogiram Sihag – resigned from the party on Thursday. Both these MLAs were facing party action for sharing stage with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. After resigning from the party, they also resigned from the post of MLA.
The JJP had written a letter to the Assembly Speaker against the membership under the anti-defection law. Surjakheda represented the Narwana (reserved) constituency, while Sihag was an MLA from the Barwala seat. Now the number of JJP MLAs in the Haryana Assembly has come down to four.
Last week, four JJP MLAs – Ramkaran Kala, Davinder Babli, Ishwar Singh and Anoop Dhanak – resigned from the Dushyant Chautala-led party. Notably, Kala, Babli and Singh had resigned on August 17, while Dhanak tendered his resignation on Friday.
Kala represented the Shahabad constituency, while Dhanak was elected from the Uklana seat. Babli was elected from the Tohana seat in 2019 and Singh won the 2019 assembly elections from the Guhla seat. Kala joined the BJP on Wednesday along with his supporters.
Haryana Assembly Election Schedule:
The Election Commission on Friday announced the schedule for assembly elections in Haryana along with Jammu and Kashmir. Haryana will go to polls in a single phase on October 1 and the counting of votes will take place on October 4. The term of the Haryana Assembly is scheduled to end on November 3.
2019 Post-poll Alliance:
After the 2019 elections, the JJP announced a post-poll alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and formed the government in the state. A majority in the 90-member Haryana Assembly requires 46 seats. BJP could not reach the majority figure. Due to this, both the parties formed an alliance after the elections.
Rift in BJP-JJP alliance:
In March this year, the JJP-BJP alliance cracked after they could not reach an agreement on seat sharing in the state for the Lok Sabha elections. In the 2019 elections, the BJP won all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state. JJP co-founder and Uchana Kalan MLA Dushyant Chautala remained the Deputy Chief Minister of the state till March 2024.
Lok Sabha election results in Haryana:
Meanwhile, the BJP and opposition Congress won five seats each in the recently concluded parliamentary elections, while the JJP failed to win a single seat.