JJP, BSP tie up for Haryana Assembly polls

New Delhi, August 11

The Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) today announced an alliance for the Assembly elections in Haryana. The JJP will contest 50 seats and the BSP 40. Former MP Dushyant Chautala and BSP’s national general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP SC Mishra claimed that the alliance would provide an alternative to the ruling BJP.

The JJP will organise a rally on September 25 to celebrate the birth anniversary of the late Deputy PM Devi Lal, which will be jointly addressed by top leaders of both parties. “Other decisions, such as chief ministerial candidate, will be taken in due course of time,” said Dushyant, dismissing speculation on JJP’s possible alliance with other parties too. 

“The JJP and the BSP will have a pact with no other party,” he emphasised. Mishra said: “We want to forget the past and start a new chapter,” in response to queries that the BSP had junked the INLD in the recent Lok Sabha elections for a new partner. The BSP had snapped its alliance with the INLD after the latter’s humiliating defeat in the Jind byelection in January this year with its candidate losing his deposit.

The JJP, that had allied itself with AAP, parted ways after the Lok Sabha elections. Both failed to win any seat. With INLD chief OP Chautala in jail in connection with a recruitment scam, his son Ajay Chautala had broken away from the INLD and formed the JJP ahead of the General Election. — TNS