Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has resigned as the state’s Chief Minister. He tendered his resignation to Governor Bandaru Dattatreya on Monday, March 12. The move comes amid rumours of a rift between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) alliance regarding Lok Sabha elections seat-sharing. A cabinet reshuffle is expected in the evening.
According to reports, the central BJP leadership has appointed Union ministers Arjun Munda and the party's national general secretary Tarun Chugh as observers in the state. Earlier in the day, Khattar had called an emergency meeting of all party legislators along with seven Independent MLAs in the state capital.
Senior BJP leaders told IANS that the JJP was demanding tickets for 10 Lok Sabha seats. A meeting between BJP President JP Nadda and Haryana Deputy Chief Minister and JJP leader Dushyant Chautala regarding the matter did not yield any result. The BJP has started looking at independent legislators to keep the government intact, at least till the Assembly polls in October.
In the 2018 Assembly polls, the ruling BJP had won 40 seats but failed to cross the halfway mark in the 90-member Assembly. Congress won 31 seats, while the then less-than-year-old JJP, which broke away from the state's once major regional Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), won 10 seats. BJP, which was six short of a majority, had an alliance with the JJP.
At that time, seven independent MLAs had extended support to the BJP, helping it reach a tally of 57 seats.
(With inputs from IANS)