GURGAON, December 25: Industrialist-turned-politician and one of the founder members of the Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) Om Prakash Jindal has started the process of garnering support for his newly floated front, the Sarvjati Morcha. Jindal called a meeting of local businessmen and leaders of the Punjabi community here this evening to outline his stand on the Morcha, which he calls a non-political organisation. Talking to news persons later, the tycoon who parted ways with Chief Minister Bansi Lal after accusing him of nepotism and high-handedness, revealed that the Sarvjati Morcha aims at giving adequate representation to all communities. Jindal added that the Morcha would attain political character at the appropriate moment. The former MP from Kurukshetra said that the front would organise a workers' meeting on January 1 in Gurgaon.Jindal, who was considered an architect of the HVP's quest for power in the state, developed a sour relationship with Bansi Lal after the chief minister refused to release a grant for the Agroha medical college.Lambasting Bansi Lal for his style of functioning, Jindal accused him of plotting his defeat when he contested the 1998 Lok Sabha elections from Hisar. ``Bansi Lal never wanted me to win. In 1998, I wanted to contest from Kurukshetra where I was the sitting MP. But Bansi Lal coerced me to contest from Hisar. I agreed, but I also told him that I will contest on a BJP ticket. Atalji and Advaniji had already approved my candidature. Then the chief minister played his cards by asking the BJP to vacate the Sirsa seat in his party's favour which the BJP refused to do. So, I had no option but to contest on a HVP ticket from Hisar,'' Jindal said, adding that all of Bansi Lal's men like Jaswant Singh and Ram Bhajan Aggarwal worked against him and made sure that he lost the election.He added that his relations with Bansi Lal took a turn for the worse immediately after the latter became the CM. ``He stopped the grant for the medical college and committed irregularities in the recruitment. I had suggested that the government give 16 per cent reservation to the backward classes in all recruitments because the HVP had mainly won due to them. Not even five per cent of the Jat votes were polled in favour of Bansi Lal,'' Jindal said. He clarified that they had a certain equation with former MLA Raghu Yadav, but there was no scope for a political understanding with his part, the BSP.
