CHANDIGARH: In a setback to Haryana Deputy Chief Minister and JJP leader Dushyant Chautala, five of his MLAs skipped a meeting he had called in Delhi and are likely to join the BJP. The BJP-JJP alliance is learnt to have broken following differences over seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
The BJP workers and leaders were said to be in favour of going it alone in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
The five JJP MLAs who are likely to switch over to alliance partner BJP are Jogi Ram Sihag, Ram Kumar Gautam, Ishwar Singh, Ramniwas and Devinder Babli. All the MLAs are likely to form a breakaway group and join the BJP.
There, however, is no immediate threat to the Haryana Government as it sailed through the no-confidence motion during the last Assembly session. Rules mandate a six-month gap for the next no-confidence motion to be brought in.
A new Cabinet is now likely to be sworn in and the members of the breakaway JJP faction and Independent MLAs are likely to be included. In the 90-member Haryana Vidhan Sabha, the BJP has 41 MLAs of its own while the JJP had 10 legislators.