JJP MLA questions Dushyant Chautala’s authority, says they’ll replace him

Former Haryana minister Devender Singh Babli on Friday questioned the capacity under which Dushyant Chautala wrote to governor Bandaru Dattatreya demanding a floor test, saying they will replace the latter as the leader of the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) legislature wing and stake claim over the party. Babli said Chautala cannot seek the test on behalf of JJP lawmakers, claiming that eight out of 10 of them are against him.

“Dushyant has only the support of his mother...Naina Chautala while the rest of the lawmakers’ favour changing him as JJP legislature party leader. He should resign. Otherwise, the other lawmakers will sack him,” Babli said a day after the Congress and JJP stepped up efforts to topple the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Haryana and wrote to Dattatreya.

“After the 2019 assembly polls, he [Dushyant Chautala] extended support to the BJP and was part of the government for four and a half years...now he is seeking to topple the BJP government. ...Dushyant’s ideology has changed...he is now talking about supporting Congress, whom he used to term the biggest enemy,” said Babli.

JJP withdrew support to the then Manohar Lal Khattar government in March, prompting the BJP to appoint Nayab Singh Saini as the chief minister.

People aware of the matter said rebel JJP lawmakers were expected to challenge Dushyant Chautala’s leadership over the next three to four. They added three JJP lawmakers met Khattar on Thursday to primarily work out a strategy to break JJP.

The rebel lawmakers said that they would decide whether to support the BJP government when a non-confidence motion is brought. “Before the floor test, we will change our legislature party leader. We will make a decision on whom to support when the non-confidence motion is moved,” said a rebel lawmaker.

Four of the rebel lawmakers are believed to be in touch with BJP leadership while Dushyant Chautala still has the backing of Amarjeet Dhanda, Anoop Dhanak, who is undergoing treatment in Gurugram, and Naina Chautala. Family members of other two lawmakers Ram Karan Kala and Ishwar Singh have joined the Congress.

Babli called Dushyant Chautala a villain and added that the latter’s family had made the JJP a private limited company. “The party [JJP] is named after Jannayak... [the late former deputy prime minister] Devi Lal... but Dushyant has become a villain. JJP’s eight lawmakers and the Haryana public are against him because of his arrogance and dictatorship. He used to question us whenever we attended any social function organised by other party leaders. After becoming deputy chief minister, he remained busy with other works and distanced himself from party lawmakers. The voters elected us. We are lawmakers and not bounded labourers. Dushyant and his father Ajay Chautala, the JJP chief, are using rough language against us in public but they cannot suppress our voice. Dushyant and his mother Naina Chautala had contacted me during the 2019 assembly polls when the Congress denied me a ticket, and I told them that I could not fight on their ticket but they persuaded me.”

He said Dushyant Chautala’s behaviour changed when he came to power and now the entire cadre and eight lawmakers are against him. “He has to pay the price for his misdeeds,” Babli said.

JJP general secretary Digvijay Singh Chautala said the legislators were standing with Dushyant Chautala. He dismissed Babli’s claims as false and baseless.

The BJP has 40 members, and the support of two independents and Gopal Kanda of the Haryana Lokhit Party. That takes it to 43, two short of the majority mark of 45 in the assembly which currently has a strength of 88. The Congress has 30 lawmakers, the JJP 10, and the Indian National Lok Dal one. One independent legislator has not made his position clear.