New Delhi: In what is being viewed as an attempt to win over the Assembly constituencies the BJP lost in the last Haryana polls, the party inducted three former Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) MLAs into the party. The joining will strengthen the BJP's caste calculation as the trio from its erstwhile ally belongs to the dalit, Jat and Brahman communities and will likely boost the party's prospects in the impending state polls.
Anoop Dhanak hails from the dalit community and has been a two-term MLA from Uklana since 2014. The first time MLA Jogi Ram Sihag won from Barwala seat and belongs to the Jat community, while Ram Kumar Gautam, popularly called Dada Gautam, is a strong Brahman face who represented the Narnaund seat after winning it on a JJP ticket in 2019 and earlier in 2005 on the BJP ticket.
The BJP has never won the Ukhlana and Barwala Assembly seats. The party bagged the Naurnaud in 2014 but lost it to the JJP in the 2019 state polls. All three seats come under the Hisar Lok Sabha, which the Congress clinched from the BJP in the last Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP which received the drubbing at the hands of Congress in the agrarian state in Lok Sabha, is going all in for a hattrick in the polls with tackling the anti incumbency by dropping over 50 percent of its sitting MLAs and inducting some from the other parties. The saffron party is exploring every possible avenue without hampering the caste equation.
The JJP MLAs were welcomed into the BJP's fold by Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini, the state unit chief Mohan Lal Badoli and its Haryana affairs co-incharge Biplab Kumar Deb at a rally in Jind. Besides the JJP MLAs, Ambala mayor Shakti Rani Sharma, who is the wife of former Union minister Venod Sharma, also joined the BJP. Mr Sharma was once considered a close confidante of former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
At the Jind rally, Mr Saini said the joining of these leaders has come as a boost for the BJP.
Referring to Congress leaders' remarks that the saffron party has accepted defeat by seeking deferment of the polls, Mr Saini said, "Hooda sahab, this is the BJP. I want to tell the Congress leaders that the BJP is not scared, we are always ready to face polls at any time."
Addressing the gathering, Mr Gautam said the BJP will return to power in Haryana for a third consecutive term. He said: "Mr Saini will again become chief minister, 200 per cent."
Ahead of joining the BJP, the three MLAs, along with another rebel JJP MLA Ram Niwas Surjakhera, extended support to BJP leader Kiran Choudhry's candidacy for the Rajya Sabha bypoll. Mr Surjakhera was also expected to join the BJP but was not present at the event.
The BJP is aiming for a hattrick in the Haryana Assembly polls to be held on October 5, but faces a tough challenge from a resurgent Congress that is looking to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor.