AAP, JJP to join hands in Haryana

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Chautala’s INLD’s breakaway outfit, the Jananayak Janata Party (JJP) will contest the elections in Haryana as alliance partners.

The announcement to this effect is likely to be made before the end of Navaratri, or even earlier.

The two parties have been desperately pitching for an alliance with the Congress in Jatland to defeat the BJP. However, the Congress has appeared highly reluctant to any such possibility.

Haryana with 10 Lok Sabha seats goes to polls on May 12 and the new combine will make the fight even more interesting.

The AAP has limited cadre base in the state and its leaders are yet to prove their political worth. The JJP, formed by former chief minister OP Chautala’s estranged son Ajay and nephew Dushyant Chautala, is emerging as a formidable alternative to the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). The INLD split was following a feud in the Chautala family.

The JJP has a formidable support base among the dominant Jat community in the state. With JJP founder, Ajay Chautala, serving a 10-year jail term along with his father OP Chautala in Tihar jail following their conviction in a corruption case, the reigns of the newly formed outfit are with Ajay’s son and MP Dushyant Chautala.

The JJP has managed to split INLD’s cadre support and mass base in a short span of time. Patriarch senior Chautala realised this after the damage has been done, which is going to cost the INLD in polls. Chautala has applied for parole to take care of his ailing wife in her ‘last days’ and to settle the deteriorating family feud.