Dushyant Chautala’s JJP hits rock bottom: From kingmaker in 2019 to zero seats in 2024

All these candidates, except Digvijay Chautala who contested from Dabwali, lost their security deposits.

Dushyant, who had won the Uchana Kalan seat in 2019 with 92,504 votes, got just 7,950 votes there this time, finishing a distant fifth. The BJP’s Devender Chatar Bhuj Atri won Uchana Kalan, getting 48,968 votes – 32 more than Congress’s Brijendra Singh, who finished second. Independent candidates, including Virender Ghogharian and Vikas, got 31,456 and 13,458 votes respectively and finished above Dushyant.

Digvijay, Dushyant’s brother, finished a distant third in Dabwali, where INLD’s Aditya Devilal won with 56,074 votes, 610 more than Congress’s Amit Sihag who came in second. Digvijay got 35,261 votes.

Dushyant loyalist and JJP candidate Amarjeet Dhanda, who had won from Julana seat in 2019, got just 2,477 votes this time and finished a distant fourth. Congress’s Vinesh Phogat won the seat with 65,080 votes. BJP’s Yogesh Kumar came in second with 59,065, INLD’s Surender Lather was third with 10,158, and AAP’s WWE wrestler-turned-politician Kavita Rani finished a distant fifth with 1,280 votes.

The JJP has been in tatters since the BJP snapped ties with Dushyant in March this year.

After the 2019 election, Dushyant has faced anger from voters on several occasions. The first instance came soon after the 2019 polls, when he entered into a post-poll alliance with the BJP after having sought votes on an anti-BJP plank. Another was when Dushyant did not step down from the post of deputy chief minister and did not walk out of the coalition government with BJP during the one-year farmers’ protest. Farmer Shubhkaran Singh being shot dead during the protests at Shambhu and Khanauri borders, and Dushyant still not snapping ties with the BJP had also led to anger from his voters.

During campaigning, Dushyant and his father Ajay Chautala have been prevented from entering several villages by farmers. The Chautalas have even acknowledged that they “made a mistake by tying up with the BJP in 2019”.

Out of the 10 MLAs the party had after the 2019 election, seven subsequently left, with four joining Congress and three the BJP. The only three MLAs left were Dushyant himself, his mother Naina Chautala, and Amarjeet Dhanda.

Adding to the JJP’s woes, several former JJP members won from other party tickets. These include Ram Karan Kala, who contested as Congress nominee from Shahbad (SC) seat; Ram Kumar Gautam, a BJP candidate from Safidon; and Devender Singh Babli, BJP’s Tohana candidate. Anoop Dhanak, a JJP rebel who contested on a BJP ticket from Uklana, lost.

The situation was not very different in Lok Sabha elections held in Haryana in June, when the JJP contested all 10 parliamentary seats from the state. Although Dushyant did not contest, his mother Naina Chautala had. However, all the JJP candidates, including Naina, lost their security deposits in that election.