BJP plans stir, may snap INLD ties

After Tamil Nadu, trouble is brewing for the NDA in Haryana. But unlike Tamil Nadu, where the DMK and the MDMK abandoned the BJP, it is the ...

After Tamil Nadu, trouble is brewing for the NDA in Haryana. But unlike Tamil Nadu, where the DMK and the MDMK abandoned the BJP, it is the state BJP which has resolved to end its uneasy alliance with INLD leader and Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala in the state.

The resolve came at the end of a two-day meeting at Panipat in which the 19-member Haryana BJP core committee expressed a desire to go it alone in the coming LS polls. Sources said Union Minister of State I.D. Swami expressed his reservations about the decision but finally went along with party colleagues. The meeting, which was chaired by state president Ganeshi Lal, also included four MPs besides Swami, national secretary Om Prakash Dhankar, former state chief Ram Vilas Sharma, Legislature Party leader Krishan Pal Gujar and general secretary (organisation) Ram Pyare Pandey.

The leaders formed two committees to plan mass agitations against the Chautala government ‘‘to create conditions’’ for a parting of ways between the two sides. While Ram Vilas will head the committee which would launch a stir on urban issues, MP Kishen Singh Sangwan will head the committee which would plan a stir on rural issues. The state leaders feel that while PM A.B. Vajpayee is on the crest of popularity wave, Chautala suffers from an intense anti-incumbency factor. Therefore, a tie-up could be suicidal as in the case of the AGP in Assam and the Janata Dal in Karnataka in 1999. One of the participants said: ‘‘We will have to campaign with helmets on to shield ourselves from the public if we go with Chautala.’’

BJP leaders hold many grudges against the Chautala government, including anti-encroachment drives in BJP strongholds, alleged witchhunt of Ganeshi Lal and the arrest of party leaders Vijay Singh Shekhawat and Kamlesh Bhoduka of Loharu. The CM is also irked over the BJP’s claims that he is taking credit for development works funded by the Centre. ‘‘Maal kissi ka, kamaal kissi ka,’’ as they define it, has so provoked Chautala that he has claimed the Centre has not given Rs 3,000 crore to Haryana, due for four years.