After taking the charge as the new Haryana Chief Minister, Naseeb Saini successfully won the trust vote and indicated that he is ready to take up his new role as CM. Meanwhile before the assembly session on February 13, the saffron BJP’s former ally Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) issued a whip to the party MLAs, instructing all 10 party legislators to remain absent from the discussion on the trust vote in the House. Expressing its concerns and strong objection towards the whip by the JJP, main opposition party Congress regarding this said that for the very first time in the history of Haryana, a party has issued such a whip in which the party’s MLAs have been asked to remain absent from the Assembly whip , while experts also raised questions on the technical aspects of the whip. But in this context, five of the JJP MLAs including former cabinet minister Devender Babli for Tohana, Ishwar Singh from Guhla-cheeka, Ramkumar Guatam from Narnaund, Jogiram Sihag from Barwana and Ramniwas Surjakhera from Narwane while outrightly rejecting the whip issued by the party remained present during the assembly proceedings, although that is a different matter, when the trust vote was tabled in the House, the concerned MLAs opt to remain absent from House after the confidence motion was tabled.
Despite the whip issued by the JJP leadership, the presence of five of the party MLAs in the house and then leaving the House before the tabling of the confidence motion, is being seen from two important aspects-firstly, they expressed their displeasure and resentment with the former Deputy CM and JJP leadership, while at the same time it has also indicated to the ruling BJP that they extend support to the BJP along with having a political substitute of the JJP ahead of the polls.
It is a notable fact that the five aforementioned MLAs have been at loggerheads with JJP leadership and Dushyant Chautala due various reasons, mainly for not appointing them ministers. However, Devendra Singh Babli was later given a berth in the state cabinet while the remaining were denied. . Even a day before this, the presence of many JJP MLAs in the swearing-in ceremony of the new cabinet was a topic of discussion. Devendra Singh Babli along with Ishwar Singh Singh and Jogiram Sihag of JJP was also present in the swearing-in ceremony. Several times inside the Assembly, JJP MLAs left no stone unturned to corner senior party leader and former Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala. Political experts believe that although BJP and JJP may have parted ways before the Lok Sabha elections, the former ally JJP, despite suffering the blow of breaking the alliance, softened its stance. It is evident from the past that they have decided to separate from both of them with a well thought out strategy and a calculative approach. Breaking the alliance of both is just a pretense and they are just contesting elections separately and on the inside they are the same. JJP’s absence from the House in the trust motion is being seen as an option for the JJP to side with the BJP if
necessary.
