Speculations Rife Over Congress-BSP Alliance To Fight BJP In Haryana Assembly Polls

The Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are likely to join hands in the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana. The speculations are rife after a closed-door meeting between Congress's two-time former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and BSP supremo Mayawati in New Delhi on Sunday, according to new agency IANS reported. The meeting reportedly lasted for half an hour. 

Besides Hooda and Mayawati, Kumari Selja, who was recently appointed Haryana Congress president, was also present at the meeting. The elections will be contested for 90 seats in the BJP ruled state.

The move comes days after Mayawati, unhappy with the seat-sharing formula, called off the agreement with Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janata Party. Taking to Twitter, she had then said the party had decided to go it alone with all its strength and contest on all the seats.

JJP chief Dushyant Chautala has said his party had believed in strengthening the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and offered it 40 out of 90 constituencies for the Haryana assembly polls, adding that it would now contest all the seats.

"The JJP has believed in strengthening the BSP, its leadership, workers and supporters and gave 40 seats (for contesting polls) to it," Chautala tweeted. "Our intention has been to give political power and self-confidence to 'Bahujan Samaj' and will continue to do so."

"The JJP has been strengthening its organisation across the state from the beginning and will contest elections on all 90 seats on the strength of the hardworking and dedicated party workers and will form the government," he said.

Chautala said the JJP, which was formed after a split in the Indian National Lok Dal last year, has been moving forward on the ideals of late Chaudhary Devi Lal and BR Ambedkar.

The two parties had announced on August 11 to contest polls in an alliance, with the JJP deciding to contest 50 seats and BSP in 40 seats.

The BSP had earlier formed an alliance with Om Prakash Chautala-led INLD, which lasted for only nine months. It also had an alliance with former MP Raj Kumar Saini's Loktantra Suraksha Party during the Lok Sabha polls.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The speculations are rife after a closed-door meeting between Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Mayawati in New Delhi on Sunday.
• Besides Hooda and Mayawati, Kumari Selja, who was recently appointed Haryana Congress president, was also present at the meeting.
• The elections will be contested for 90 seats in the BJP ruled state.