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A day after Haryana threw up a hung verdict, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said he has received letters of support from Independent MLAs and expressed confidence that he would prove his majority on the floor of the House.
Short of a clear majority, BJP Haryana in-charge Anil Jain also claimed that Independents had extended unconditional support to the party and a decision in this regard would be taken at a legislative party meeting tomorrow. The legislative party meeting will be held in Chandigarh at 11 am on Saturday where Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Arun Singh will be the Central observers. Following the meeting, Jain said the party would meet the Governor and stake claim to form the government in Haryana.
Jain, however, remained mum on Haryana Lokhit Party’s Gopal Kanda, who flew to New Delhi on Thursday evening to meet the BJP leadership.
“Independents have given us unconditional support. Party will hold discussions on this support and then disclose further details. Whatever shall be the future course of action shall be decided by discussing it with party high command,” Jain said. The oath-taking ceremony is expected to be held after Diwali.
Interestingly, Jain did not disclose if the BJP would accept the support of Kanda, who had taken a chartered flight with INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala’s estranged brother Ranjit Chautala to New Delhi to meet the BJP leadership on Thursday evening.
In August 2012, while serving as Home Minister in the then Congress-led state government under Hooda, Kanda was arrested after a former air hostess with MDLR airlines, which he owned, committed suicide after accusing him of harassment. In February 2013, the air hostess’ mother, too, committed suicide.
Voices of caution started emerging from BJP senior leaders on Friday, with former Union Minister Uma Bharti warning the party leadership against hobnobbing with leaders like Gopal Kanda.
So far, three rebel MLAs have pledged their support to BJP. BJP rebels Dharampal Gonder, Nayan Pal Rawat, and Sombir Sangwan — all of whom won as Independents — met party working president J P Nadda at his residence in New Delhi. BJP leader Jawahar Yadav said another Independent Rakesh Daulatabad, who won from Badshahpur constituency, also met Nadda.
“These three Independent MLAs reached J P Nadda’s house with an intention to extend support to the BJP government,” PTI quoted Yadav as saying.
In a setback to the BJP, a resurgent Congress-led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda claimed 31 seats and the newly formed Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) of Dushyant Chautala won 10. The saffron party bagged only 40 seats.
More embarrassing for the party was that barring Khattar and Health Minister Anil Vij, all their five Cabinet colleagues, their party’s state unit chief and a minister of state, lost badly to either Congress or JJP candidates.
(With ENS inputs)
