Chandigarh: Uneasiness was palpable in Haryana Janhit Congress camp which asked the BJP to clear the air on alliance for the upcoming Assembly polls after BJP president Amit Shah today said in Delhi that his party workers should focus on ensuring victory in Haryana on its own.
HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi today said that BJP should make its stance on the issue clear "very soon" and declared that his party was competent to contest on all the 90 seats.
"BJP is doing injustice with us. On a number of occasions, our leaders met the BJP leaders. They had given time till today to respond on various issues that includes formally announcing the number of seats each partner is going to contest, but that has not been done so far," Bishnoi told reporters in Rohtak.
The former MP said,"We have not got any response from them so far. Despite this, we are sticking to the coalition dharma. But if they continue like this, we will sit and discuss future strategy".
On possibility of a tie up with BSP, he said, "so far, I have not met any BSP leader" After his elevation as party president in Delhi, Shah said about Haryana, "There is a need to change the government in the state. We should see that BJP alone gets the majority," he said, adding any possibility of alliance would be seen later.
When reporters questioned Bishnoi about the Shah's statement, Bishnoi said,"So far, we have learnt about it through the media. Nobody has said anything to us on the alliance issue".
Cracks had surfaced in the BJP-HJC alliance in Haryana after the Lok Sabha polls, with demands from certain sections in BJP's state unit to either rework the tie-up or go it alone in Assembly elections.
While the HJC, led by Bishnoi, younger son of former Chief Minister late Bhajan Lal, has been asserting that they were "committed to be in alliance" with the BJP on the earlier agreed upon conditions.
According to the condition, both the partners would contest on 45 seats each and Bishnoi would be the Chief Minister for the first two-and-a-half years, if alliance is voted to power.
A section of BJP leaders from Haryana have pointed out to the party high command that Bishnoi has failed to retain his Lok Sabha seat from Hisar in 2014 while another of his party candidate had lost from Sirsa parliamentary constituency and projecting him as the Chief Ministerial candidate would not be a wise decision.
Days after the Lok Sabha polls, HJC had accused workers of its ally BJP of "not working honestly" during the campaigning for the elections.
"Some of the workers in BJP did not work honestly during the electioneering and they did not respect the alliance between Haryana Janhit Congress and BJP. On the other hand, we worked earnestly for the win of the alliance in the state," Renuka Bishnoi, wife of Kuldeep Bishnoi, had told reporters.
HJC lost both the seats, Hisar and Sirsa, it contested, while its ally BJP won seven of eight seats it fought for. HJC chief Bishnoi lost to INLD's Dushyant Chautala from Hisar by a margin of 31,847 votes.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, August 9, 2014, 23:16
