Dushyant Chautala rules out alliance with BJP in Haryana, ready to support Cong in RS polls
Chandigarh, Jun 27: Jannayak Janta Party leader Dushyant Chautala on Thursday said his party is ready to support the Congress in the Rajya Sabha election and ruled out any alliance with the ruling BJP in Haryana before or after the next Assembly polls.
The JJP's four-and-a-half-year alliance with the BJP came to an end after the saffron party replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini as chief minister in March.
In the recently held general elections, JJP fielded candidates in all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana but drew a blank. Congress' Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda won the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat, leading to a seat in the Upper House of Parliament becoming vacant.
At his first news conference here after the announcement of Lok Sabha results, Chautala, the former Haryana deputy chief minister, was asked how much of a benefit or loss his party had because of its earlier tie-up with the BJP.
The recent Lok Sabha results have shown that "what BJP had to face, we too had to face that", Chautala said and admitted that his JJP also bore the brunt of farmers' anger.
Dushyant Chautala, the son of JJP chief Ajay Singh Chautala, said the party will in the next few weeks seek feedback from its workers and based on that would decide on entering into an alliance with any party other than the BJP for the Assembly polls slated to be held in the next few months.
Ruling out any truck with BJP, he said, "I can make it clear there is no point of going with the BJP in future. Even after elections, we will not have any truck with BJP," he said.
Dushyant Chautala claimed that the JJP's loss in the Lok Sabha polls was "because of our alliance with the BJP".
About a Rajya Sabha seat from Haryana falling vacant following Deepender Hooda's election to the Lok Sabha, the JJP leader said his party is ready to support the Congress for the Upper House polls, provided they field a prominent personality or an eminent sportsperson as a candidate.
The Congress is the main opposition in Haryana But leader of opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda has remarked that other outfits should join hands and field a candidate as the grand old party does not have the required numbers to put up its candidate, Chautala said.
He said, "If the Congress really wants to take on the BJP, they should not look at win or loss. If they put up any candidate which is acceptable, we will support them. The candidate can be any prominent personality or eminent person, including from the sports field and he can be joint candidate of the opposition."
But if the Congress actually does not want to put up its candidate when polls are held for the Rajya Sabha seat, it would indicate that "there is match-fixing between Congress and BJP", Chautala said.
"If our party had around 30 MLAs like the Congress, we would have definitely fielded our candidate without thinking about winning or losing."
About the Assembly polls in the state, Chautala said the JJP will hold meetings with party workers from July 5 to seek feedback and to rebuild the organisation. "The focus is to make our organisation ready for the assembly poll," he said.
In reply to a question, Chautala alleged both the BJP and the Congress were working to weaken regional parties.
Hitting out at the Nayab Singh Saini-led BJP government in Haryana on the law-and-order front, the JJP leader demanded the state should have "a full-time home minister".
To another question, Chautala reiterated that the Saini government has been in the "minority" after three Independents withdrew their support last month.
"As against the Assembly's effective strength of 86, BJP has the support of 43, but the majority mark is 44," he said, adding the JJP has written to the Haryana Governor, urging him to hold a floor test.
Chautala also said that party leaders will meet the Assembly Speaker and seek the disqualification of two JJP MLAs.
The JJP recently moved a petition before the Haryana Assembly Speaker, seeking the disqualification of two party MLAs -- Ramniwas Surjakhera and Jogi Ram Sihag -- under the anti-defection law for allegedly indulging in anti-party activities.
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Youths, relying on Google Maps, drive vehicle into river in Kasaragod; rescued
Kasaragod: Two youths, who were on their way to a hospital using Google Maps to find their way, drove their car into a swollen river but had a miraculous escape as the vehicle got stuck to a tree in Kerala's northernmost Kasaragod district.
The visuals of Fire Force personnel pulling them to safety from the overflowing river in Pallanchi here the other day went viral on social media platforms on Sunday.
They could escape and contact the Fire Force personnel only because their vehicle, which was carried away by the water currents, got stuck in a tree.
The rescued youths said they were on their way to a hospital in neighbouring Karnataka in the wee hours the other day and were proceeding using Google Maps.
Abdul Rasheed, one of the youths, said Google Maps showed a narrow road and they drove their car through it.
"Using the vehicle's headlight, we felt that there was some water in front of us. But, we didn't see that there was a river on both sides and a bridge in the middle. There was also no sidewall for the bridge," he told a TV channel.
The car suddenly began to get carried away in the water currents but later got stuck in a tree on the shores of the river.
By this time, they managed to open the car door, come out of the vehicle and contacted the Fire Force personnel by sending them the location.
Later, Fire Force personnel rushed to the place and pulled out the two men to safety using ropes.
"We never thought that we could come back to life. We truly feel that it is a rebirth," Rasheed added.
Last month, a group of tourists from Hyderabad drove into a swollen stream near Kuruppanthara in Kottayam apparently after using Google Maps.
All four managed to escape unharmed due to the efforts of a nearby police patrol unit and local residents, but their vehicle was completely submerged.
Two #Kanhangad natives had a narrow escape on the #Pallanchi Forest road in #Kasaragod's #Kuttikol after their car fell into a river early morning on Thursday.
— Hate Detector 🔍 (@HateDetectors) June 27, 2024
The passengers M Abdul Rashid (35) and A Thashreef (36) said they met with the accident at 6 AM while heading towards a… pic.twitter.com/SMmJ58UBq3
