Haryana Assembly Elections 2024: Dushyant Chautala's JJP announces alliance with Chandra Shekhar Azad's party, to contest on 70 seats

Dushyant Chautala's Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) has formed an alliance with Chandra Shekhar Azad's Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) for the Haryana Assembly elections. Out of 90 seats, the JJP will contest on 70 seats and Azad Samaj Party on 20 seats, Dushyant Chautala said during a joint press conference. 

With this new alliance, Haryana is set to witness five-cornered contest. The Congress, AAP, and BJP are going solo, while INLD has allied with BSP, and now JJP has partnered with the Azad Samaj Party.

In the last assembly elections, the JJP had contested 87 seats but could win only 10. It, however, extended support to the BJP and formed a coalition government. Dushayant Chautala became the deputy chief minister. He, however, walked out of the alliance ahead of the Lok Sabha elections over seat-sharing. 

Earlier this week, Dushyant said he won't ally with the BJP again as he did not get respect in the NDA. 

In an interview with ANI, the JJP chief asserted that his will not ally with the BJP for the Haryana Assembly polls. "I can on record assure you that I won't go to the BJP." When asked about their loss in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, Chautala said, "I don't take it as a crisis now. What had happened, happened. I see that as an opportunity now...last time also, our party was a kingmaker...you can see the coming days as well; JJP will be the most important political party of the state (Haryana)." 

In the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, JJP got only 0.87 per cent of the vote share, with none of its candidates winning any seat in the state. When asked if he would ally with the INDIA alliance, he said, "Let's see if we have the numbers and yes, if our party is taken as a priority, then why not?" 

Chautala also spoke about the reasons for the party's setback during the Lok Sabha elections and said that he "couldn't understand the sentiments" of the farmers and therefore "paid the price during Lok Sabha elections." "There was anger due to farmers' agitation. Our major vote share was of farmers and that major vote share wanted me to step down during the agitation. My party and I thought we should stand with the government and make amendments as the bills were under the central government...Maybe we couldn't understand the sentiments and that's why we paid the price during Lok Sabha elections," he said.