In Adampur, a test for Bhavya, bigger test for BJP-JJP ties

The bypoll to Adampur was necessitated after Bhavya father and then sitting Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi resigned from the Vidhan Sabha in August to join the BJP.

Bhavya’s victory, the saffron party insiders say, will put both Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and the BJP in a more commanding position over the JJP, led by Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala. Amid indications of not all being good between the allies, especially over the way the campaign for Adampur is being carried out. The list of star-campaigners for Adampur released by BJP has no mention of any JJP leader. The top leadership of both the parties, however, have been maintaining that the alliance was running ‘smooth’ and shall ‘continue’.

BJP is leaving no stones unturned to ensure it wins the bypoll. The JJP, on the other hand, had been sulking for being “sidelined” in the campaign. JJP leaders had last week protested and held a parliamentary board meeting at New Delhi after they found no mention of party or its senior leadership in the campaign posters of Bhavya in Adampur. However, Khattar tried to downplay the JJP’s heart-burn saying that “the alliance was supporting Bhavya and will ensure that he wins”.

JJP’s senior leader and Dushyant Chautala’s younger brother Digvijay had expressed “surprise” after the Deputy CM did not figure anywhere in Bhavya’s posters. “We are in alliance with BJP in Haryana and running a coalition government. BJP’s leadership always say that we are taking the alliance forward. In such scenario, there is a bypoll and yet if there is no mention of any JJP leader on the posters, such behaviour is very surprising,” Digvijay had said.

After JJP’s meeting at New Delhi, Dushyant said that they “are fulfilling all the responsibilities of an ally; wherever and whenever we are called [for campaigning], we shall go there”.
BJP’s social media teams have already started campaigning for the 2024 Assembly polls and Khattar continues to be the face of the party on the posters being circulated on social media. There too, there is no mention of any alliance.

In 90-member Haryana Vidhan Sabha, a party needs 46 MLAs to form the government with simple majority. BJP, with 40 MLAs, fell short of the majority mark and entered into a post-poll alliance with Dushyant led JJP that has 10 MLAs. There are seven Independents out of whom Ranjit Chautala is currently state’s power-cum-prisons minister.

BJP in-charge for Haryana and party MP Biplab Kumar Deb recently held a meeting with the six Independent MLAs at Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker Gian Chand Gupta’s residence. Sources said that all six MLAs including Ranjit Chautala (Rania); Nayanpal Rawat (Prithla); Rakesh Daulatabad (Badshahpur), Randhir Golan (Pundri), Somvir Sangwan (Charkhi Dadri) and Dharampal Gondar (Nilokheri) assured Deb that they were with the BJP and the party has their ‘unconditional support’. However, it was also learnt that a few of the Independents were not in favour of BJP continuing with its alliance with the JJP.

It was also learnt that JJP’s Devender Babli, known for criticising his own party at several occasions, had also recently met Deb in New Delhi. Several other BJP as well as JJP leaders have met Deb in the recent past.

“If BJP wins Adampur, its strength in Hopuse will reach 41. The Independents are already being approached by the BJP high-command. If they formally join BJP, it would surely increase the worries for JJP. Babli was inducted into the Cabinet as Panchayats minister. He had been raising voice against his own party. An additional seat in kitty will certainly put the BJP into a better position and may change the dynamics of the alliance,” one of the MLAs told The Indian Express.

Adampur is considered a stronghold of Haryana’s three-time former CM Bhajan Lal’s family. Since 1968, the family had not lost any election irrespective of the party they were in.
To ensure that it wins the Adampur bypoll, the BJP has pressed most of its MPs and MLAs to woo the electorate. The Congress, AAP and INLD, on the other hand had been attacking Kuldeep as an “inaccessible leader” who quit party “after he failed to secure a position for himself”.

INLD’s Abhay Chautala even accused him of joining BJP because he was facing Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax cases. Congress is also trying to use this bypoll as an opportunity to show that BJP was losing its sheen and winds have started blowing in the opposition party’s favour. With this bypoll, AAP is also testing waters and hoping that people would vote for it’s candidate and show both BJP and Congress that they were not in the fray for 2024 polls.

Both Congress as well as BJP, each, have released list of nearly three-dozen of their respective leaders as their ‘star campaigners’ who shall be campaigning in this bypoll.