JJP taken by surprise by BJP ‘one-sided’ move to go for civic polls alone

In the 2019 Assembly elections, Dushyant Chautala had defeated Birender Singh’s wife Prem Lata by a huge margin. The BJP and JJP had formed an alliance after the elections. As per reports, Birender, a Jat leader like the Chautalas, played a major role in the BJP deciding not to fight elections together.

The decision was taken by the state election committee of the BJP, at a meeting on Saturday held under the chairmanship of Haryana party president Om Prakash Dhankar. After the meeting, Dhankar said: “The BJP state executive has decided to contest the civic body polls alone in place of an alliance. In all municipal corporations, we will contest the elections on our party symbol.”

Admitting their surprise, JJP Haryana unit president Nishan Singh told The Indian Express: “We were following the alliance dharma harmoniously and will continue doing so. We always said we are preparing for the municipal elections but will contest polls jointly after talking to our alliance partner. We never said we won’t contest in an alliance. When they (the BJP) have taken a one-sided decision, terming it a ‘friendly match’, we have accepted that too. Now, we will field our candidates for all the 46 civic bodies.”

Within the BJP, there is no doubt that it is the right call. In power now in Haryana for seven years, apart from at the Centre for eight, it sees no need for JJP crutches to win. This is especially true of urban areas, where the BJP is stronger. The JJP, on the other hand, has a base in rural areas.

The BJP also wants to strengthen itself in areas where it had lost to the JJP in the 2019 Assembly elections, which would not be possible if they remained in an alliance in local elections. A BJP leader, who supported going it alone, said: “There is no chance of JJP votes getting transferred to the BJP in the civic body elections.”

That holds true also for a section of Jat voters, who are likely to stay with the JJP, even as the BJP could try to mop up the non-Jat vote.

BJP leaders also believe that the JJP has lost its hold among old loyalists of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal, who have continued to vote for the Chautala family. A major reason for this is the farm laws. Ironically, while it was the BJP-led Central government that passed the laws over which Punjab and Haryana agitated for long, the fallout of it might be felt by the JJP, given its base among farmers.

The BJP is also taking its cues from the civic body polls held in December 2020, held at the height of the farmer agitation. The BJP-JJP poll alliance had suffered a jolt in the mayoral polls when the ruling alliance lost two municipal corporations — Ambala and Sonipat–and could win just Panchkula. It was for the first time that direct elections were held for mayoral posts in the three cities.

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About whether the BJP and JJP could come together again for the panchayat polls, JJP leader Nishan Singh said: “We leave the decision to them. We will not break the alliance dharma at any stage but try to strengthen it.”

However, in private, JJP leaders admit that the move has put them on alert for the 2024 elections, with the BJP intentions now up in the air. The party has lately intensified its organisational activities, holding public meetings and undertaking membership drives.

The BJP-JJP alliance had been born from the results of the 2019 Assembly elections putting the BJP just short of a majority. Winning a surprising 10 seats in its maiden polls, the JJP had emerged as a kingmaker. For its support to the BJP, the JJP had been rewarded with deputy chief ministership for Dushyant.