Former Haryana chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday said they (BJP leaders) accepted their defeat morally. His comment comes amid a major rejig in the BJP-led Haryana government in which the party replaced Chief Miniter Manohar Lal Khattar, ending the alliance government with ally JJP.
"They have accepted their defeat morally. People have decided to form the Congress government. This (BJP-JJP alliance) was a 'thugbandhan'." Elections should be conducted under the President's Rule," he added.
The Congress alleged it was a "pre-planned drama" by the BJP and the JJP of breaking the alliance to avoid the consequences of their "failure" and demanded fresh elections under the President's rule.
Khattar resigned on Tuesday and state BJP chief Nayab Singh Saini is set to replace him, a development that comes amid speculation that the BJP and the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) were parting ways.
In a post in Hindi on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "The chaos that we are seeing in Haryana is a result of pressure from farmers, youths and wrestlers and the same is going to happen in the country too."
"What we have seen in Haryana is the power of 'Jai Jaswan, jai kisan, jai naujawan and jai pahalwan'. What they have done in Haryana, they will do to Mr Modi very soon. It is time for change," he said.
Another Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "In Haryana, a 'political circus' has begun to collect votes by dividing Haryanvis on the basis of caste as part of a pre-determined 'script'."
"A new 'trial balloon' will be out blaming the JJP for all its sins. A new cabinet will be formed, perhaps even a new chief minister. To make people forget their past misdeeds and divert them from the anti-people policies and decisions of the past 10 years, a new 'label' will be put on the 'basket of sins'," he said.
"Today, the need of the hour is that the Congress should immediately bring a 'no-confidence motion'. Now the people also have to decide. Think, understand and do justice," he said.
The JJP, he claimed, will be made to contest separate elections so that a new chessboard of "vote division" can be set up and perhaps cases would also be filed against JJP leaders so that "sympathy factor" can be created.
Haryana BJP president and OBC leader Nayab Singh Saini, who is an MP from Kurukshetra, was unanimously elected as the leader of the state BJP legislature group.
Also read: Anil Vij and Bhavya Bishnoi to be new Haryana Deputy Chief Ministers: Sources
