The Kuldeep Bishnoi-led Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) on Thursday called off its three-year-old ties with the BJP ahead of Assembly elections and decided to join hands with former Congress leader Venod Sharma’s Jan Chetna Party (JCP).
The BJP accused HJC of playing the role of a B-team of the Congress in utter disregard of the people’s desire for a change in the State.
The BJP had earlier given enough hints of the alliance breaking if Bishnoi did not scale down his demand for nearly 50 seats in the 90-member Haryana Assembly and going alone in the State where it won seven of the eight lok Sabha seats it contested. The HJC lost both the lok Sabha seats it contested in Haryana.
Bishnoi charged the BJP with betraying his party even though he “tried” to save the alliance.
The development in Haryana has created a flutter in the ranks of the Shiv Sena, a long-standing ally of the BJP, which has sought to get a clear picture on seat sharing in Maharashtra. This time round, the BJP is insisting on contesting half of the Assembly seats, allowing lesser numbers to its partner in the upcoming Assembly polls. According to an earlier agreement, the BJP would contest more lok Sabha seats and the Shiv Sena would be the dominant partner in Assembly polls.
Responding to the situation in Haryana, the BJP refuted the charges that it betrayed Bishnoi. “We have never betrayed any ally... We wanted him (Bishnoi) to understand ground realities... He has left us acting like a B-team of Congress. He had six MlAs and all of them, except for him, joined the Congress. He is a general without an army,” BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said in Delhi, soon after HJC announced breaking of ties in Chandigarh.
Announcing the decision to break the alliance with the BJP, HJC chief Bishnoi, younger son of former Haryana Chief Minister late Bhajan lal, said at a Press conference in Chandigarh that the party which did not care for its own stalwarts like AB Vajpayee and lK Advani could not be trusted anymore.
“We tried our level best to keep the alliance working... made sincere efforts...They (BJP) are not ready to stick to the agreed alliance principles,” Bishnoi said at the Press conference , adding that his party would join hands with former Union Minister Venod Sharma’s JCP before the State polls.
JCP chief Sharma made it clear that the HJC chief would be the chief ministerial candidate of the new alliance, and if voted to power, he would serve as Chief Minister for a full five-year term. The formal parting came after a bitter spat between the parties over seat-sharing and the chief ministerial nominee.
Bishnoi said the “BJP wants to weaken and wipe out the regional parties. They make use of regional parties to make themselves strong and later dump them”. He said there was no longer any “Modi wave” and things are always different during the lok Sabha polls and in the State polls. “We will go to the people and let them decide what punishment they want to give to those who have betrayed us,” Bishnoi said.
BJP spokesperson Hussain mocked Bishnoi’s “delusion” of becoming the State’s Chief Minister, and said the HJC leader was acting in connivance with Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. He said Bishoi would not succeed in “dividing votes” and check the “Modi-wave” in Haryana.
Hussain said the relations between the two parties had soured during the lok Sabha polls itself when BJP rejected Bishnoi’s proposal to field Venod Sharma as a candidate.
At the Press meet, also attended by JCP chief Sharma and other HJC leaders, 45-year-old Bishnoi said “Haryana is the land of Kurukshetra, the land famous for doing justice. The very basis of our party coming into existence (in 2007) was that we stood up to fight against injustice.”
“They betrayed (first Haryana CM) Bhagwat Dayal Sharma, Devi lal, Chaudhary Om Prakash Chautala, and Bansi lal. What can people expect of those who ditched Vajpayee, Advani and Murli Manohar JoshiIJ They cannot be trusted anymore,” Bishnoi said.