3 min readChandigarhJan 12, 2021 10:19 AM IST
First published on: Jan 12, 2021 at 05:16 AM IST
After protesting farmers ransacked the venue of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s “kisan mahapanchayat” at a Karnal village, top leaders of BJP-JJP alliance, including Khattar and Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, are set to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss the political scenario in the state.
The meeting is scheduled to take place in New Delhi Tuesday. But before that, Dushyant will hold a meeting with JJP MLAs at his farmhouse in Delhi. All JJP legislators have been asked to come to the capital on Tuesday.
The exercise is seen as an attempt to keep the flock of MLAs in the alliance together amid increasing pressure over them with the farmers’ agitation dominating the political landscape in Haryana for the past one-and-a-half month.
The meeting comes amid a statement by former Haryana CM Bhupinder Hooda Monday that several MLAs of the ruling combine are on the verge of quitting.
In the 90-member Assembly, the BJP has 40 seats and the JJP has 10 legislators; five out of seven Independent MLAs are supporting the government. The farmer agitation has made it difficult for the alliance ministers and MLAs to hold public meetings in villages, with farmers showing black flags, chasing their vehicles, damaging helipads and staging protests to prevent such meetings. The incident at the Karnal village Sunday has the government worried as it took place despite all efforts by the state machinery to prevent any disruption.
Sources said the BJP-JJP leaders will brief the Union Home Minister about the recent developments. Apart from Khattar and Dushyant, state BJP president Om Prakash Dhankar, state Education Minister Kanwar Pal Gujjar and JJP state president Nishan Singh will be part of the delegation, a senior BJP leader confirmed.
Earlier in the day, Khattar interacted with the five Independent MLAs backing the alliance government at the residence of state Power Minister Ranjit Chautala, also an Independent MLA.
Meanwhile, INLD leader Abhay Chautala wrote a letter to the Assembly Speaker Monday, asking him to treat it as his resignation from Vidhan Sabha if the government doesn’t withdraw the “three black farm laws” by January 26. Abhay is the lone MLA of INLD in the Assembly.
His “resignation letter”, it is learnt, has built more pressure on Dushyant, who has been projecting himself as leader of farmers but is facing their ire for supporting the BJP-led government.
BJP’s Manohar Lal Khattar with JJP’s Dushyant Chautala in New Delhi. (PTI file photo) 
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