Old Allies INLD, BSP Reunite To Contest Upcoming Haryana Polls

Bhubaneswar: After the recent Lok Sabha poll debacle, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Thursday announced that they would contest the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections jointly.

In a press conference, INLD general secretary Abhay Singh Chautala said: “Today the sentiment of the common man is that the BJP, which has been looting this state for 10 years, should be removed from power and the Congress party should be kept away from power…we will bring together people who have formed their own political parties in Haryana, who are against both the BJP and the Congress, and we will form a front in which people’s trust will increase and in the coming times a coalition government will be formed in the state.”

The INLD leader had also dubbed former CM and Congress leader, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, to be an agent of the BJP.

According to media reports, the BSP will contest on 37 out of the 90 assembly seats in the state, leaving the rest for INLD. Currently, the state is being ruled by the BJP, which is eyeing to come to power for the third time in a row.

On the alliance, BSP chief Mayawati wrote on X: “Bahujan Samaj Party and the Indian National Lok Dal will fight the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana together with the resolve to defeat the anti-people parties and form a new coalition government, which was announced in a joint press conference in Chandigarh today with my full blessings.” She also mentioned that both the parties had resolved to form a welfare government in the state.

In a India Today report, BSP national coordinator Akash Anand had said Chautala and the BSP chief, Mayawati, had discussed the seat-sharing formula at length on July 6. Chautala had met Mayawati at her residence in New Delhi. The report further claimed that Anand, Mayawati’s successor, had said that if the alliance won the election Chautala would be made the Chief Minister.

In the recently-held Lok Sabha polls, the BSP had contested on 9 of 10 parliamentary seats while INLD had fought on 7 seats. Both the parties had failed to open their account. Chautala, who is the only INLD MLA in the state Assembly, had also contested the Lok Sabha polls from Krukshetra constituency, but was defeated.

Partners treaded different paths in 2019

The BSP and the INLD are old allies. They had called off their nine-month-old partnership in February, 2019. At that time, INLD was Haryana’s main opposition party. The split was announced at a time when there was an internal feud in the Chautala family. Former MP and Abhay Chautala’s elder brother Ajay Singh Chautala and the latter’s son Dushyant Chautala broke away from INLD in 2018 and formed the JJP party in December that year.