Less than a year ago, Dushyant Chautala stared at an uncertain political future as he was expelled from the Indian National Lok Dal. In December 2018, Dushyant Chautala, the grandson of INLD patriarch Om Prakash Chautala, launched the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP).
Naysayers had predicted the JJP would be a spoiler and they were vindicated by the party's wipe-out in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year. Dushyant himself lost from Hisar.
But with the trends in the counting of Assembly election votes hinting at the possibility of a hung house, Dushyant may well become one of the key players, if not the very king itself, in Haryana politics.
At 10.30am, the JJP was leading in nine seats in the 90-member house. The BJP leads in 40 seats and the Congresss in 29 seats. Dushyant is leading from the constituency of Uchana Kalan against sitting BJP MLA Prem Latha. Dushyant was defeated in the Lok Sabha polls by Prem Latha's son Brijendra Singh.
Rumours have emerged the Congress has offered the post of chief minister to Dushyant. The JJP had also declared that it would insist on the chief minister's post for an alliance. Interestingly, Dushyant had met with Deepinder Hooda, son of two-time Congress chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, on the eve of counting.
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If confirmed, it would indicate that the Congress is eyeing a repeat of its 2018 alliance with the JD(S) in Karnataka, where the BJP had emerged as the single largest party after elections. Then, the Congress had offered the chief minister's post to the JD(S), though the latter had far fewer seats. However, the alliance collapsed an year later.
Speaking to mediapersons on Tuesday, Dushyant exuded confidence the JJP would win "26-27" seats; the party had contested 88 seats in these elections. He said the JJP held the key to the formation of the next government in Haryana.
Dushyant said the election counting trends showed the "love of Haryana's people" and were a "sign of change". He ridiculed the BJP, saying the party had "failed" in its ambition of gaining 75 seats. He said the BJP would have to cross the Yamuna, alluding to the possibility the saffron party will not be able to form the government. However, Dushyant told NDTV that the JJP had not decided on which party to ally with, noting that a decision would be taken by its national executive.
