Working to expand base, JJP to mark foundation day today in Hooda stronghold

Jhajjar and its surrounding areas of Rohtak and Sonipat are considered a stronghold of Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. JJP’s founders Ajay Chautala and his son and Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala are from the Jat community and enjoy a significant base in the Jat-dominated areas.

During the farmers’ agitation against the three farm legislations, against which a repeal Bill has now been passed by the Parliament, leaders of the JJP and its senior ally the BJP had been facing immense opposition, especially in the rural areas.

The JJP, sources within the party, said intends to contest all 90 Assembly constituencies when the state goes to polls in 2024.

Currently, six of its 10 MLAs come from barely two districts — three each from Jind and Hisar. They include Anoop Dhanak (Uklana), Jogi Ram Sihag (Barwala) and Ram Kumar Gautam (Narnaund) in Hisar, and Amarjeet Dhanda (Julana), Dushyant Chautala (Uchana Kalan) and Ram Niwas (Narwana) in Jind. The other four include Devender Babli (Tohana, Fatehabad), Ishwar Singh (Guhla, Kaithal), Naina Chautala (Badhra, Charkhi Dadri) and Ram Karan (Shahbad, Kurukshetra).

There are four assembly constituencies that fall in Jhajjar district. These include Jhajjar (represented by Geeta Bhukkal), Beri (Raghuvir Singh Kadian), Badli (Kuldeep Vats) and Bahadurgarh (Rajender Singh Joon) – all four from the Congress.

It was in October, during the party national and state executive body meetings when JJP national president Ajay Chautala announced that they will celebrate third foundation day in Jhajjar on December 9. The party has already announced that it would launch its mega-membership drive in 2022 with a target of adding 10 lakh new members.

JJP state president Nishan Singh said that the party has been closely focussing on various important aspects, including upcoming local body and panchayat elections, and also assembly elections in the neighbouring states.

After President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, the JJP leaders started holding district-level meetings. In a recent interaction with party workers in Sonipat, Dushyant said that the party has already fulfilled 40 per cent of its poll promises made during 2019 Assembly polls. He added that party’s over 45,000 workers are spread out across the state and are holding meetings at district and village levels to ensure that Jhajjar rally is successful.

Besides Ajay Chautala and Dushyant, state minister Anoop Dhanak, and other leaders including party general secretary Divgijay Chautala, INSO national president Pradeep Deswal and former Dadri MLA Rajdeep Phogat had been holding meetings with party workers for several days.

Dushyant, in Sonipat, had said that JJP had been following the principles and ideologies of late deputy prime minister Devi Lal. He added that BJP-JJP government was procuring 13 crops at MSP and is granting compensation to farmers under the ‘Bhavantar Bharpai Yojana’ for 19 crops. “We also fulfilled our promise of giving 75 per cent reservation to Haryana youths in the private sector and 50 per cent reservation to women in the Panchayati Raj system”, Dushyant said.