HT interview: ‘Helped BJP in 2019, but will form govt in Haryana now,’ says Dushyant Chautala

Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader and former Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala speaks to Hindustan Times on a range of issues, including its split with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) earlier this year, the JJP’s performance during the Lok Sabha elections and its preparations for the upcoming Haryana assembly polls.

How well is the JJP countering the anti-incumbency against the BJP? How are you placed for the assembly polls?

We are at the same position from where we started in 2019. But we are also improving at a very fast rate day by day. Yes, there is a factor of anti-incumbency primarily because of the farmers’ agitation. But people also understand that the JJP did a lot for the farmers – be it making hassle free payment for crop procurement in two days, buying 14 crops on minimum support price or increasing the crop damage compensation amount to ₹15,000 per acre and depositing it in the farmers’ accounts within 30 days of crop loss. We have delivered successfully.

Do you think you and the JJP could have been a front runner for the assembly elections had you resigned during the farmers’ agitation against the three agricultural laws?

Who knows what would have happened. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Sukhbir Badal’s wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from the Union cabinet in protest against the laws. Where do they stand today? Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Singh Chautala also quit his assembly seat. Did he win the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat? No. It seems the public sentiment somewhere was that had I resigned in 2020, the BJP government would have fallen, which really did not happen in March this year. I was out of the government in March and Nayab Singh Saini continued as chief minister.

The BJP broke ties with the JJP after four-and-half-years of coalition? What went wrong?

We could not come to an understanding on the seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha elections. That’s why we parted ways and decided to contest on our own.

Did the decision to snap ties with the BJP hurt the JJP badly in the Lok Sabha elections?

There were two factors which influenced the 2024 Lok Sabha elections – national issues and a fight between the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). In the fight between NDA and INDIA, regional parties which did not partner with either of the two blocs failed to gain any momentum, except SAD, which won only one seat in Punjab.

So, was this the reason that the JJP performed poorly, securing a mere 0.87% vote share in the Lok Sabha polls?

Yes, the numbers went down. Look at the Lok Sabha election results for SAD in Punjab. They have never performed so badly. Their vote share decreased to 13%. However, the voting pattern will be entirely different in the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana. It won’t be on the lines of the Lok Sabha polls. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which was part of the INDIA bloc during the Lok Sabha polls, is now contesting against the Congress in the assembly elections. The vote share which the AAP got in Kurukshetra was an outcome of the alliance where they had the Congress’s support.

What are the issues on which the JJP is contesting the assembly elections?

The law and order situation in Haryana is a major issue. The state is in a complete mess as no one is scared of the police now. There has been a deterioration in the law and order in the last five months. There has been a large number of extortion cases, firing incidents, murders and rapes. No action has been taken. Chief minister Saini does not have any control over the home department.

Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda says the JJP is the B-team of the BJP? How would you respond to this?

It’s an absurd argument. Every party and its cadre work for themselves. No party would work for another political party. Did we fight for the Congress in 2019? No. This time we have entered into an alliance with the Azad Samaj Party (ASP) and we will do well. Our target is to make maximum gains.

What do you mean when you say the JJP holds the key (also the party’s poll symbol) to the 2024 assembly elections?

This time the JJP and the ASP combine will open the lock (to get to power). In 2019, we helped the BJP open the lock. But this time, we will form the government.

Will you consider entering into a post-poll alliance with the BJP again?

I think it is too early to say this. First, we should have the numbers. If the numbers are positive for us, we will form the government. Let’s see who all support us.