Caught between BJP and INLD, Dushyant Chautala's JJP faces big test in Haryana

Chandigarh: The Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) came into existence in December 2018 after founder Dushyant Chautala split from family party Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and formed his own party with the support of his father, former MP Ajay Chautala on the ideology of Chaudhary Devi Lal, a former Deputy Prime Minister of India.

The infighting in the grand old dynastic party which had ruled over Haryana for over a decade ensued at a rally in Haryana's Gohana on October 2018 where Dushyant and brother Digvijay were blamed for some heckling of Abhay Chautala, son of Om Prakash Chautala, the INLD supremo.

Following his expulsion, Dushyant, who had won on an INLD ticket from Hisar constituency during Lok Sabha election 2014, floated his own party. His brother, Digvijay contested in the bypoll for Jind assembly seat held in January 2019 and came in second, losing only to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which clinched Jind for the first time. Digvijay managed to rake in a total of 37,631 votes, while INLD, which had won the seat in the 2014 assembly elections, could get only 3,454 votes.

The newly-formed party unsuccessfully contested the recently-concluded Lok Sabha election 2019 in alliance with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on a 7:3 seat-sharing deal. All 10 seats in Haryana were bagged by the BJP while Dushyant, who contested from Hisar came in second in the race to secure his deposit with around 11.75 lakh votes.

During the Lok Sabha election 2019, the JJP and AAP combine candidates, namely, Prithvi Singh (AAP candidate, Ambala), Jai Bhagwan Sharma (JJP, Kurukshetra), Krishan Aggarwal (AAP, Karnal), Nirmal Singh (JJP, Sirsa), Swati Yadav, (JJP, Bhiwani-Mahendergarh), Mehmood Khan, (JJP Gurugram), Navin Jaihind (AAP, Faridabad), Digvijay Chautala, (Sonepat) and Pardeep Deswal (Rohtak) lost their deposits.

Undeterred by the unsuccessful candidature in the two polls it contested, Dushyant Chautala-led JJP will be contesting on all 90 seats for the upcoming Haryana assembly election 2010, scheduled for October 21.

It is a tough battle ahead for the former Hisar MP who will fight from the Uchana Kalana segment and once again take on BJP's sitting MLA Prem Lata, who defeated him from the constituency by a margin of over 7,000 votes in the 2014 state assembly polls. Lata had defeated Dushyant in 2014 polls when he had entered the fray despite being a sitting MP of the INLD from Hisar. Dushyant also tasted defeat at the hands of bureaucrat-turned-politician Brijendra Singh of the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls from Hisar in 2019.

The stakes are high for the JJP as it enters a dual battle against his breakaway former party INLD and the BJP, which has been riding on success since assembly election 2014 and is currently in power in Haryana will full majority.