As farm protests end, JJP plans expansion with meets, membership

Sources said Dushyant, who drives his political strength from his family’s long legacy in the state, is bracing for the tough seat-sharing talks likely for the 2024 polls. The JJP’s alliance with the BJP was only a last-minute formulation, after the Dushyant-led party surprised everyone by winning 10 seats in its debut poll in 2019 and the Manohar Lal Khattar government failed to win enough constituencies to retain power (it got 40 out of 90 seats). The cherry on the deal was the Deputy Chief Minister post for Dushyant.

The JJP also needs to ensure that it continues to stay ahead of its parent party, the INLD. The INLD won just one Assembly seat last time (Ellenabad in Sirsa, won by Dushyant’s uncle Abhay Chautala), but led by former CM and Haryana strongman Om Prakash Chautala, who is serving time for a scam (along with Dushyant’s father and JJP president Ajay Chautala), it can hardly be counted out. Om Prakash Chautala’s brother Ranjit Singh won as an Independent and is Power Minister in the state.

The JJP has been telling people how, with Dushyant as Dy CM, it has fulfilled “40% of our poll promises”, including compensation to farmers under the ‘Bhavantar Bharpai Yojana’ for 19 crops, 75% reservation to Haryana youths in the private sector and 50% reservation for women in the Panchayati Raj institutions. At the Jhajjar rally, Dushyant repeated the message, also listing the measures the BJP-JJP government had taken for farmers.

A part of the ruling coalition, the JJP has been at the receiving anger of the farmer anger in the state along with the BJP, virtually keeping leaders of the two parties away from their constituencies.

Jhajjar borders Rohtak, Sonipat, Bhiwani, Rewari and Gurgaon, of which Rohtak and Sonipat are considered the stronghold of another Haryana strongman, former Congress CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda. All the four Assembly seats in the Jhajjar district are currently held by the Congress, which had won 30 in all in 2019.

Six of the JJP’s 10 MLAs are from Jind and Hisar districts alone. The other four belong to Fatehabad, Kaithal, Charkhi Dadri and Kurukshetra districts.

This is the second big foray by Dushyant into Hooda’s territory. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Dushyant’s younger brother Digvijay had fought against Hooda from the Sonipat constituency. While Hooda too could not win, Digvijay had failed to even save his security deposit.

Apart from Dushyant, Digvijay and Ajay Chautala, Haryana minister Anoop Dhanak and other JJP leaders have been holding meetings with party workers.

JJP state president Nishan Singh said apart from the 2024 Assembly polls, the party had its eye on the coming local body and panchayat elections in Haryana and elections in neighbouring states. The JJP is likely to support the BJP in Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh, especially in the Jat-dominated seats. The party has been saying that it is acquiring members in places like Gujarat as well.