Law and order in mess; Nayab Singh Saini lacks control: Dushyant Chautala
Months after its alliance with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ended in March, Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) was trounced in the Lok Sabha elections as it got less than 1% vote share
Former Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) was trounced in the Lok Sabha elections. It got less than 1% vote share months after its alliance with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ended in March. As the JJP is contesting the assembly election in alliance with Azad Samaj Party (ASP), Chautala spoke to HT about his party’s prospects, the Lok Sabha poll debacle, etc. Edited excerpts:
What are your prospects given you were also in power for over four years?
We are at the same position from where we started in 2019. But we are improving fast. ...there is a factor of anti-incumbency primarily because of the farmers’ agitation. But people also understand that JJP did a lot for farmers...hassle-free payment for crop procurement in two days, buying 14 crops on minimum support price, increasing the crop damage compensation amount to ₹15,000 per acre, and depositing it in farmers’ accounts within 30 days of crop loss. We have delivered successfully.
Would the JJP have been a front-runner in the assembly elections had you resigned during the farmers’ agitation against the three farm laws?
Who knows what would have happened? Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader...Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from the Union cabinet in protest against the three laws. Where do they stand today? Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Singh Chautala resigned from his assembly seat. Did he win the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat? No. It seems the public sentiment somewhere was that if I had resigned in 2020, the BJP government would have fallen which did not happen in March. I was out of the government in March and Nayab Singh Saini continued as the chief minister.
The BJP broke ties with the JJP after four and half years. What went wrong?
We could not come to an understanding regarding seat sharing for Lok Sabha elections. That is why we parted ways and decided to contest on our own.
Did this hurt JJP in the Lok Sabha elections?
National issues and a fight between the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) influenced the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In the fight between NDA and INDIA, regional parties that did not partner with either of the two alliances failed to gain any momentum...
Was this the reason that the JJP performed poorly getting a mere 0.87% vote share in the Lok Sabha elections?
The numbers went down. Look at the Lok Sabha election results for SAD in Punjab. They have never performed so badly. Their vote share decreased to 13%. However, the voting pattern will be entirely different in assembly elections in Haryana. It would not be on the lines of the Lok Sabha polls. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a constituent of the INDIA in Lok Sabha polls, is contesting against the Congress in the assembly polls. The vote share that the AAP got in Kurukshetra was an outcome of INDIA bloc where they had the Congress support.
What are the issues on which the JJP is contesting the assembly polls?
The law and order situation in Haryana is a big issue. The state is in a complete mess as no one is scared of the police now. This deterioration in the law-and-order situation has happened in the last five months. There have been a large number of extortion cases, firing incidents, murders, rapes. And no action has been taken. Saini does not have any control over the home department.
How would you respond to Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s claim that JJP is BJP’s B-team?
It is an absurd argument. Every party and its cadre work for themselves. No party would work for another political party. Did we fight for the Congress in 2019? No. We have allied with the ASP and will do well. Our target is to make maximum gains.
What do you mean when you say the JJP holds the key [party’s poll symbol] to the assembly elections?
The JJP and ASP will jointly open the lock [to power]. In 2019, we helped the BJP open the lock. But this time we will form the government.
Will you consider a post-poll alliance with the BJP again?
I think it is too early to say this. First, we should have the numbers. If the numbers are positive, we will form the government. Let us see who all supports us.