Haryana news: Two more MLAs of the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), Ramniwas Surjakhera from Narwana and Jogiram Sihag from Barwala have resigned from their posts today (August 22). They are likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the coming days.
However, both these MLAs were angry with the Jannayak Janta Party for a long time before tendering their resignation and the party also alleged that both of them were involved in anti-party activities.
A total of six MLAs have resigned so far in JJP. Surjakhera and Sihag, MLAs from Narwana and Barwala respectively, sent their resignation letters to the Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta. The development has come along expected lines as both the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) MLAs had openly supported the BJP in the recently held Lok Sabha polls.
Including Surjakhera and Sihag, six out of the 10 JJP MLAs have quit the party so far.
Surjakhera had campaigned in Narwana while Sihag in Hisar for the BJP despite the JJP having fielded its candidates on all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. The JJP had in May moved a petition before the Haryana Assembly Speaker seeking disqualification of Surjakhera and Sihag under the anti-defection law for allegedly indulging in anti-party activities.
The JJP suffered a humiliating defeat in the parliamentary polls. "I have resigned from the primary membership of the party as well as a Vidhan Sabha member," Surjakhera told PTI over phone.
The development came a day after Sihag, Surjakhera, Ram Kumar Gautam and Anoop Dhanak extended support to BJP leader Kiran Choudhry's candidature after she filed her nomination for the Rajya Sabha bypoll from Haryana.
What Ramniwas Surjakhera said after his resignation?
Surjakhera claimed that he and the three other legislators will be joining the BJP in the next few days. Hitting out at former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala, he said, "The JJP is being run like a family-based party where the voice of MLAs is not being heard. On many occasions in the past, many decisions were taken unilaterally and we were not consulted.
"So much so, when senior leaders of the party used to hold a rally or big function, we were not kept in the loop," he complained.
Surjakhera claimed that the BJP will form government for a third time in Haryana.
"Contrary to what the opposition may claim, people are happy with the BJP government's performance. Today, citizens are getting various services at their doorsteps.
"The government is procuring all crops at MSP (minimum support price) and farmers are happy. Haryana is making rapid progress in all fields," he said.
After vertical split in the INLD owing to family feud, Ajay Singh Chautala and Dushyant Chautala had formed the JJP in December 2018. Having won 10 of the 90 seats in the 2019 Assembly elections, the JJP forged a post-poll alliance with the BJP after the saffron party failed to secure a majority on its own.
However, in March 2024, after Nayab Singh Saini replaced M L Khattar as the chief minister, the BJP's four-and-a-half-year-old alliance with the JJP ended.
MLAs quit JJP in Haryana
In a jolt to the JJP ahead of the assembly elections in Haryana, four of its MLAs quit the party. Anoop Dhanak, Ram Karan Kala, Devender Babli and Ishwar Singh quit the party citing personal reasons, the sources said.
The Election Commission on Friday (August 16) announced that assembly polls in Haryana would be held in a single phase on October 1 and the results will be declared on October 4.
The Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) had won 10 seats in the 2019 assembly polls. Dhanak, a minister in the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP-JJP coalition government, was elected from the Uklana constituency in Hisar while Babli had won from the Tohana seat in Fatehabad.
Babli was also a minister in the Khattar government. Singh is the MLA from Guhla-Chika in Kaithal while Kala is the legislator from Shahabad in Kurukshetra.
The JJP joined hands with the BJP after the saffron party failed to win a majority in the 90-member House in the 2019 polls. The alliance came to an end in March after Nayab Singh Saini replaced Khattar as chief minister.
