JJP rebels Surjakhera, Sihag resign from Haryana Assembly, set to join BJP

Chandigarh: JJP rebel MLAs Ramniwas Surjakhera and Jogi Ram Sihag on Thursday tendered their resignation from the state Assembly and will join the ruling BJP in the coming days.

Surjakhera and Sihag, MLAs from Narwana and Barwala respectively, sent their resignation letters to the Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta. The development has come along expected lines as both the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) MLAs had openly supported the BJP in the recently held Lok Sabha polls.

In a jolt to the JJP last week, party rebel MLAs Anoop Dhanak, Ram Karan Kala, Devender Babli and Ishwar Singh quit the party citing personal reasons. Kala, MLA from Shahabad, joined the Congress in New Delhi on Wednesday in the presence of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Including Surjakhera and Sihag, six out of the 10 JJP MLAs have quit the party so far.

Surjakhera had campaigned in Narwana while Sihag in Hisar for the BJP despite the JJP having fielded its candidates on all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.

The JJP had in May moved a petition before the Haryana Assembly Speaker seeking disqualification of Surjakhera and Sihag under the anti-defection law for allegedly indulging in anti-party activities.

The JJP suffered a humiliating defeat in the parliamentary polls.

"I have resigned from the primary membership of the party as well as a Vidhan Sabha member," Surjakhera told PTI over phone.

The development came a day after Sihag, Surjakhera, Ram Kumar Gautam and Anoop Dhanak extended support to BJP leader Kiran Choudhry's candidature after she filed her nomination for the Rajya Sabha bypoll from Haryana.

Surjakhera claimed that he and the three other legislators will be joining the BJP in the next few days. Hitting out at former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala, he said, "The JJP is being run like a family-based party where the voice of MLAs is not being heard. On many occasions in the past, many decisions were taken unilaterally and we were not consulted.

"So much so, when senior leaders of the party used to hold a rally or big function, we were not kept in the loop," he complained.

Surjakhera claimed that the BJP will form government for a third time in Haryana.

"Contrary to what the opposition may claim, people are happy with the BJP government's performance. Today, citizens are getting various services at their doorsteps.

"The government is procuring all crops at MSP (minimum support price) and farmers are happy... Haryana is making rapid progress in all fields," he said.

After vertical split in the INLD owing to family feud, Ajay Singh Chautala and Dushyant Chautala had formed the JJP in December 2018. Having won 10 of the 90 seats in the 2019 Assembly elections, the JJP forged a post-poll alliance with the BJP after the saffron party failed to secure a majority on its own.

However, in March 2024, after Nayab Singh Saini replaced M L Khattar as the chief minister, the BJP's four-and-a-half-year-old alliance with the JJP ended.