Amid defection buzz, JJP issues unique whip, for its MLAs to skip trust vote, 5 ignore it

Surjakhera is learnt to have asked the other four MLAs who turned up to attend a meeting outside the House that was called by a few Independent MLAs who announced their support to the BJP.

The whip issued by the JJP read: “All JJP Members of the Haryana Legislative Assembly are hereby informed that this Confidence Motion in the Council of Ministers proposed by Government will be brought in the Haryana Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, the 13 March, 2024. All members of JJP in the Haryana Legislative Assembly, are, therefore, requested to remain absent positively from the House at the time of Voting on Confidence Motion on Wednesday, the 13 March, 2024”.

JJP insiders told The Indian Express that the whip was issued because at least five JJP MLAs did not attend the party’s meeting called by former Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala in New Delhi on Tuesday. The MLAs are learnt to have gone to the Haryana Raj Bhavan instead to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new BJP ministers. The sources said that the whip had been issued “to avoid giving an impression that the party was breaking-up”.

The MLAs were not present for the rally called by Dushyant Wednesday afternoon in Hisar as well.

The whip came up for discussion in the House Wednesday, with Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the leader of Opposition in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha saying that it was the first time it was being issued to be “absent” for voting. “We used to hear that a whip is issued by a political party asking its MLAs to ensure their presence during a voting. It is the first time we are hearing that a party has issued a whip to its members to remain absent.. A fixed match is being played by both BJP-JJP”.

Why was a whip issued?

Under the Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law), a political party has a constitutional right to issue a whip to its legislators.

A whip is “a written order that a political party issues to its members for being present for an important vote” so that they vote only in a particular way.

There are three kinds of whips: one-line, two-line and three-line. A one-line whip is “to inform the members about a vote” and “allows a member to abstain in case they decide not to follow the party line”. The two-line whip is issued to “direct the members to be present in the House at the time of voting”. However, no special instructions are given on the pattern of voting. The three-line whip, considered the strictest, is issued to members directing them “to vote as per the party line”.

However, if any member violates the party whip, he may face expulsion from the House under the Anti-Defection Act. The only exception is when more than a third of legislators vote against a directive, effectively splitting the party.

Dushyant Chautala and his nine legislators had formed a post-poll alliance with the BJP and emerged as the BJP’s “saviours” in 2019 after the Haryana Assembly polls threw up a fractured mandate. The BJP had made Dushyant the Deputy CM as reward for supporting the BJP-JJP government, holding key portfolios like Excise and Taxation, Revenue and Disaster Management, Commerce, Food, etc. Two other JJP MLAs – Anoop Dhanak and Devender Singh Babli – were also made ministers in the Manohar Lal Khattar Cabinet.