With sharp dip in vote share, JJP draws a blank in Haryana Assembly polls

JJP, founded by Chautalas, faces wipe-out in Haryana assembly elections with significant drop in vote share.

The Chautalas-led Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), founded six years ago after a split in the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), suffered a wipeout in the Haryana Assembly election the results of which were declared on Tuesday. The party drew a blank and registered a sharp dip in its vote share.

The fledgling party, which had 10 MLAs and an impressive 14.8% vote share in the previous Assembly poll, garnered less than 1% votes this time, with both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gaining at its expense.

Also Read: Haryana Assembly election results Highlights: BJP scores hat-trick, Congress suffers jolt

The JJP’s vote share was absorbed mostly by the Congress and the BJP as the two national parties registered an increase of 11 and 3 percentage points in their respective vote shares.

JJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala lost his security deposit from Uchana Kalan Assembly segment having polled only 7,950 votes. Finishing fifth, he lost by over 41,000 votes to BJP’s Devender Attri. His younger brother Digvijay lost by over 20,000 votes from the Dabwali Assembly segment to INLD’s Aditya Chautala.

Seen as the next Devi Lal, the late iconic farmer leader, Mr. Chautala soon fell out of favour with his core vote bank, the Jats, after he joined hands with the BJP in 2019 to become part of the coalition government. The resentment against him and his party grew when he continued to support the BJP government in Haryana during the year-long farmers agitation.

Amid his dipping popularity, the BJP too snapped ties with the JJP just before the Lok Sabha elections leaving it in the lurch and continuing to run the government with the support of Independents. Seven JJP MLAs quit ahead of the Assembly election to join other parties, and a few of them were fielded by the BJP and the Congress.