Can Jind bypoll now change arrangement in House?

CHANDIGARH: Death of Pehowa MLA and deputy leader of opposition (LoP) Jaswinder Singh Sandhu has added another twist to the Jind byelection. While so far opposition parties were claiming that the incumbent BJP would lose the election and it would a referendum against the state government’s functioning, the situation has nearly flipped now. The bypoll can now decide the fate of the main opposition party in the Haryana assembly.

After the death of Sandhu, the total strength of INLD MLAs in House has been reduced to 17, which same as the number of the Congress MLAs. How will it impact the Congress and INLD leader Abhay Chautala remains to be seen.

After the 2014 assembly election, BJP managed to win 47 seats out of total 90. It also got support of five independent MLAs. At that time INLD had 19 MLAs and had support of one MLA from Shiromani Akali Dal.

The Congress was reduced to third rank with 15 MLAs. But after Kuldeep Bishnoi and his wife Renuka merged their Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) into the Congress, the total number of party MLAs in House had gone up to 17.

The situation has been gradually turning grim for INLD. In August last year, Hari Chand Midha, Jind MLA from INLD, had died which triggered the Jind byelection. After the feud in Chautala family, MP Dushyant’s mother Naina and two more INLD MLAs have gone against the Abhay. However, neither have they resigned nor INLD has removed them and sought their disqualification. The party’s decision to not take formal action against the three MLAs has also been guided by the numerical equation.

For Congress, the victory would not get it the tag of opposition party as Surjewala will have to give up his Kaithal assembly seat. Since the tenure of the assembly will be till November, hence there are possibilities that there might not be any byelections to Pehowa, and Kaithal if it too falls vacant.

While, it would be status quo in case BJP or JJP wins the seat. As INLD enjoys the seniority on the basis of vote percentage as compared to the Congress.

“This has become an interesting arithmetic now. It’s good if INLD wins. Else too it would be in no loss situation as its vote share of 2014 elections was more than that of the Congress. Such situation arose in Karnataka in 2013. Two opposition parties had 40 seats each. But Speaker gave the tag of main opposition party to the one which had more vote share,” said Hemant Kumar, an Ambala-based lawyer. It was, however, on the discretion of the speaker.

INLD National general secretary Said R S Choudhary maintained that Abhay’s status as the leader of opposition is totally safe. “There is absolutely no threat to the position. Rest, we are heading towards the safe victory in Jind as well,” he added.