Haryana CM Khattar leaves for Delhi to meet senior leaders
Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar left for Delhi on Friday morning to meet senior party leaders and discuss a way forward as the ruling BJP emerged as the single largest party with 40 seats in a hung assembly.
After the poll results came out on Thursday, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell six short of the halfway mark needed to form the next government.
The Congress won 31 seats, Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) 10, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) one each and seven are Independents.
Khattar left for Delhi in a helicopter. He boarded the chopper from the helipad near his official residence here, sources said.
He will be meeting the party's senior leadership and discuss the way forward in the wake of the BJP needing support of a few MLAs to form the government.
The party has the option either to take support of the Independents alone or approach the JJP or both. The sources said all these things will be thoroughly discussed when Khattar meets senior party leaders.
The sources said the BJP is likely to stake claim for another term in the state.
The BJP's final tally came as a disappointment for a party that had won all 10 parliamentary seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, and predicted that it will cross 75 seats this time in the assembly.
But eight of 10 ministers fielded by the BJP lost. In the general elections, the BJP cornered 58 per cent of the vote share, which has now dropped to about 36.5 per cent.
For the state's main opposition party Congress, hit by infighting that required a change in the state leadership ahead of the October 21 election, the results gave it a shot at power if the JJP and some Independents extend support.
Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had on Thursday appealed to non-BJP outfits to join hands.
"This mandate is against the BJP. The JJP, INLD and others, including the Independents, should join hands with the Congress to keep the BJP at bay," he told reporters in Rohtak.
Hooda had alleged that the administration was "putting pressure" on the Independents at the behest of the BJP and not allowing them to move freely.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Compromised PM didn't sign trade deal with US, but a bargain for Adani's release: Rahul
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of signing a trade deal with the US only to secure the "release" of billionaire businessman Gautam Adani.
"Compromised PM did not strike a trade deal, but a bargain for Adani's release," Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X, after reports that the US has agreed to settle the lawsuit that accused Adani of hiding alleged bribery.
The US government has agreed to settle the lawsuit filed against Adani, who is accused of duping investors by concealing that his company's huge solar energy project in India was being facilitated by an alleged bribery scheme, according to court filings published Thursday.
Reacting to the reports, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said it was now clear why the PM agreed to the "hopelessly one-sided Indo-US trade deal that was really a steal by the US".
"And it is also clear why he abruptly halted Operation Sindoor on May 10, 2025, acting on President Trump's threats rather than on our national interest. Reportedly, the Trump Administration is about to drop all charges of corruption against Modani," he said on X.
"How much more compromised can the PM get?" Ramesh asked.
In the lawsuit filed in late 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani, who is a director at the group's renewable energy unit Adani Green Energy Ltd, of agreeing to pay about USD 265 million in bribes to Indian government officials between approximately 2020 and 2024 to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts on terms that expected to yield USD 2 billion of profit over 20 years.
It was alleged in the lawsuit that Adani Group raised USD 2 billion in loans and bonds, including from US firms, on the backs of false and misleading statements related to the firm's anti-bribery practices and policies.
The ports-to-energy conglomerate had denied the allegations.
