Three Jat Leaders Including JJP MLA Join BJP Ahead Of Haryana Elections, Dushyant Chautala Takes Dig At Former Ally

Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) member of the legislative assembly (MLA) Devender Singh Babli joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday (2 September) along with two more Jat leaders in Haryana.

Babli is a Jat and was a Minister in the Manohar Lal Khattar-led government when the JJP and BJP were in alliance. After the alliance fell apart earlier this year, Babli was expected to join the Congress party.

However, he joined the BJP, which might reward him with a ticket to contest in his constituency Tohana in Fatehabad district in the upcoming Haryana assembly elections scheduled for 5 October.

The other leader who joined the BJP is Sunil Sangwan, son of former Haryana Minister Satpal Sangwan. Sunil Sangwan was the jail superintendent and voluntarily retired from the service to join politics.

Sanjay Kablana, who contested the 2019 assembly election from Jhajjar's Badli assembly constituency on JJP ticket but came third, also joined the BJP.

BJP's general secretary Arun Singh, Haryana election co-in-charge Biplab Kumar Deb and Haryana unit president Mohan Lal Badoli were present in the joining ceremony.

The JJP is now left with just three MLAs: Dushyant Chautala himself, his mother Naina Chautala and Julana MLA Amarjeet Singh Dhanda. Dushyant Chautala took a dig at the BJP for importing leaders from the JJP.

BJP is considered weak among Jats and hence, the induction of three Jat leaders into the party might be a strategic move. Its biggest challenge is the anti-incumbency of 10 years.