Chandigarh: In a setback to the ruling BJP in Haryana amid the Lok Sabha election, three independent MLAs have withdrawn their support to the Nayab Singh Saini-led government in the state.
The three MLAs – Sombir Sangwan, Randhir Gollen and Dharampal Gonder – made the announcement at a press conference held in Rohtak in the presence of senior Congress leader and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan.
After their presser, Hooda claimed that the Saini government had lost its majority.
Their extending support to the Congress, he claimed, proved that there is a wave for the party in the state and that “we are poised to perform well in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls”.
Saini took over state reins two months ago in March after the BJP broke off its alliance with the Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) and dissolved the then-BJP-JJP government under chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
During that time, the BJP – which had 41 MLAs in the 90-member assembly – was comfortably placed even without the JJP’s 10 MLAs as the Saini government had secured the support of six of the seven independents in the assembly.
Besides, another MLA named Gopal Kanda of the Haryana Lokhit Party also extended support to Saini, thereby increasing the BJP’s tally to 48 MLAs.
With three independent MLAs withdrawing their support to the BJP, the party’s tally in the state assembly has fallen the below majority mark.
The current strength of state assembly is 88 after two MLAs – Khattar and Ranjit Chautala, an independent MLA from the BJP camp – resigned to fight the Lok Sabha polls.
This means that the majority mark in the Haryana assembly right now is 45 and the BJP’s new tally is 43 – 40 MLAs of its own plus two independents and one MLA of Haryana Lokhit Party.
However, the BJP claimed that it has the support of 47 MLAs. Sources said this includes four MLAs from the JJP camp.
Praveen Attrey, media secretary to the Haryana CM, told the media that three independent MLAs extending their support to the Congress won’t impact the BJP government in the state.
“If you see the numbers, our government has the support of 47 MLAs and because of this, there is no threat to the government,” he said.
He also said that legally too, a no-confidence motion can’t be moved against the Haryana government because the Congress government only moved a no-confidence motion in March, which was dismissed.
Attey claimed that as per the law, at least six months have to pass between a no-confidence motion being dismissed and another one being moved.
Bad optics
While speaking to the media, CM Saini blamed the fresh development on the Congress’s ‘petty politics’.
But it has certainly created bad optics for the ruling camp in the middle of the election.
The BJP has been dominating the Lok Sabha polls in Haryana since Modi’s arrival in national politics in 2014.
In 2019, it won all ten seats in the state, a performance it hopes to repeat this time as well.
But the series of political developments – first, the change of the Khattar government and now, MLAs leaving the new Saini government – has cast a shadow on the party’s overall poll management.
While the BJP is confident of the same result as that of the last general election, it remains to be seen how the latest development will play out when the state goes to poll in the last phase of voting on June 1.
