Haryana Assembly Elections: ‘Kingmaker' Dushyant Chautala To Meet JJP MLAs Today

Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader Dushyant Chautala, who has emerged as kingmaker in Haryana, will be meeting his 10 legislators in Delhi on Friday to decide which party to support in order to form the next government in the state, sources said. Though Chautala has remained non-committal on whether his party would support the BJP or the Congress, party sources said that he is likely to meet Union Home Minister and BJP chief Amit Shah soon.

Haryana on Thursday ended up with a hung assembly with the ruling BJP emerging as the largest party with 40 seats, but still six short of the halfway mark needed to form the next government. The Congress won 31 seats, the Jannayak Janta Party 10, the Indian National Lok Dal and Haryana Lokhit Party one each. The Aam Aadmi Party, which contested 46 seats, was decimated.

The split verdict triggered hectic political activity. Two independents, Gopal Kanda and Ranjeet Singh, boarded a chartered flight to Delhi for a meeting with BJP leadership, party sources said.

A third Somveer Singh told PTI that he will support the BJP government.

The sources said the BJP is likely to stake claim for another term in the state on Friday.

The BJP’s final tally came as a disappointment for a party that had won all 10 parliamentary seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, and predicted that it will cross 75 seats this time in the assembly.

But eight of 10 ministers fielded by the BJP lost.

On Thursday, Chautala while commenting on the trends which were available at that time had said, "This shows there was huge anti- incumbency against the (Manohar Lal) Khattar government."

Notably, Chautala had floated the JJP in December last year after a vertical split in the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) following a feud in the Chautala clan. The INLD was decimated in the polls and could manage to win only one seat.