In yet another blow to the Indian National Lok Dal, its MLA from Fatehabad, Balwan Singh Daulatpuria joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday.
Balwan Singh joined the ruling BJP in the presence of Chief Minister Manohar Lal in Fatehabad.
With this, the INLD’s strengthen has come down to 9 MLAs in the 90-member Haryana Assembly.
Ahead of Lok Sabha polls, the party’s sitting MLA, Naseem Ahmed had joined the Congress while two others namely Ranbir Gangwa and Kehar Singh had switched sides to the BJP.
Another four INLD MLAs had switched sides to the Jannayak Janta Party led by Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala, grandson of INLD chief OP Chautala.
Notably, the INLD had suffered a humiliating defeat in Lok Sabha polls with its vote share declining to dismal 1.89 percent (240258 votes) from 24.4 per cent in 2014 parliamentary polls.
The party had not only failed to retain the two seats i.e. Hisar and Sirsa, it had won in 2014 parliamentary polls but its candidates on all 10 Lok Sabha seats could not even save their security deposits in general elections.
Following his party’s worst-ever electoral defeat in Haryana, the INLD chief OP Chautala is currently undertaking statewide tour to revive the party and infuse energy in party cadre ahead of State Assembly polls due to be held later this year.
The grand old party- INLD – was founded in 1996 by former Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal and has been out of power in Haryana for over 14 years now.