Former BSF constable Tej Bahadur Yadav on Sunday joined the Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janata Party and said that he will contest the assembly polls against Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar from Karnal assembly constituency.

Yadav, who hails from Mahendragarh district, joined the JJP in New Delhi in the presence of senior leader Dushyant Chautala.

Yadav was dismissed from his post in 2017 after he made a video about the quality of food served to security forces.

“I am thankful to JJP and Dushyant Chautala that they nominated me to fight against the Chief Minister Manohar Lal from Karnal,” Yadav said while talking to the mediapersons.

The JJP is however yet to make formal announcement of his candidature from Karnal.

He said, “In Dushyant, I see an image of late Chaudhary Devi Lal and like him, he has a clean reputation. In future, I want to see him as Haryana's Chief Minister and for this, we need support of the people”.

Yadav said that his fight has always been against corruption in the society.

He further said that unemployment is a major issue in Haryana. You know the condition of Haryana and how many people are unemployed in the state, he added. The polls to the 90-member Haryana Assembly will be held on October 21. The process of filing nominations for assembly polls had begun on September 27.

The JJP, which came into existence after a vertical split in INLD following a feud within the Chautala clan, is contesting the next month's assembly polls alone.

Notably, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Yadav had joined Samajwadi Party and was fielded against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi. However, his nomination paper was rejected due to discrepancies in the two sets of papers submitted by him. The former BSF constable was also required to submit a no-objection certificate from the BSF, stating reasons for his dismissal.

Yadav, had however, claimed that he furnished the NoC from BSF that was required by the returning officers and had accused the BJP of taking “dictatorial steps” to stop him from fighting Lok Sabha polls.