Kuldeep Bishnoi Snaps Ties With BJP, Calls Party a Serial Betrayer of Allies
NEW DELHI : The ruling BJP’s Haryana ally Kuldip Bishnoi today ended the partnership two months ahead of polls in the state, accusing the party of being a serial betrayer.”We tried our best to keep the alliance. The BJP tried to strangle me at every stage,” Mr Bishnoi told reporters.
The BJP had reportedly rejected Mr Bishnoi’s demand to contest from half the state’s 90 seats in the assembly polls due by October and also any possibility of him being projected as the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance.Mr Bishnoi had been hinting that it was all but over for the three-year alliance after repeated snubs by the BJP leadership.
“People had warned me about the BJP’s past of ditching its partner,” he said today, adding that this was why he made sure that the pact with the BJP was a written one.The BJP has been unsubtle about its attempts at distancing itself from the Haryana leader.
Mr Bishnoi was reportedly not invited when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a road project in Kaithal last week.The 46-year-old was also missing on stage at every big public rally that Mr Modi addressed in Haryana for the national election, in which the BJP scored an emphatic victory, winning all the eight seats it contested.
Mr Bishnoi’s party lost the two seats it contested. He lost his own Hisar seat to the 26-year-old Dushyant Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal.Sources say the BJP’s rethink on the alliance goes beyond Mr Bishnoi’s performance, and is also linked to its need to improve its position in the Rajya Sabha, where it is in a minority and has to rely on opposition support for legislation. The party is eyeing the assembly elections in four states – possibly five – this year as an opportunity to make up numbers.
This means the BJP will have to contest and win as many seats as it can in the states. Rajya Sabha members are elected by members of state assemblies and legislative councils.
