Chandigarh: A delegation of the Haryana Congress MLAs on Friday submitted a memorandum addressed to the governor Bandaru Dattatreya, demanding dismissal of the ruling BJP government which, it held, had lost majority in the state assembly.
Interacting with the newspersons after submitting the memorandum, Congress chief whip B B Batra and deputy Congress legislature party (CLP) leader Aftab Ahmed said that the chief minister Nayab Saini-led BJP government was reduced to a minority in the assembly after the recent political development when three of the independent MLAs had withdrawn their support to his government. They were Sombir Sangwan, Randhir Gollen and Dharampal Gonder.
Batra said that the Congress legislators had handed over the memorandum to the Governor’s secretary as the former had left for Telangana for some work. Urging the governor to dissolve the assembly, he said that the Saini government had no right to continue as it had come in minority. And if that was not done, the Congress demanded an assembly session be convened and the government asked to seek a vote of confidence, Batra added.
It may be recalled that the 90-member Haryana assembly had been reduced to 88 a few weeks ago after former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and independent MLA Ranjit Chautala resigned from the House and decided to contest the parliamentary election from Karnal and Hisar, respectively.
In this event and in the House of 88, the BJP had 40 MLAs of its own and had support of a sole MLA of Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) and two independents – taking the total to 43. However, on the other hand Congress had 30 MLAs of its own while BJP’s former ally Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) which has 10 MLAs, sole MLA of Indian National Lok Dal, Abhay Chautala and four independents – totalling 45 – have also decided to pull BJP government down.
However, there is a catch here. Even though JJP leader Dushyant Chautala has said that his party opposed BJP, not all of its 10 MLAs appear to be with him – four of them have been seen in constant touch with BJP leaders. It is in this wake that chief minister Saini and former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar have maintained that there was no threat to their party.
