Tightrope walk for Dushyant ahead

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, October 26

To stand with Manohar Lal Khattar will be like walking the tightrope for Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader Dushyant Chautala. He will have to do a balancing act between his anti-BJP support-base and to work with Khattar for the smooth running of government affairs.

Though the BJP and JJP are likely to work in accordance with a common minimum programme (which is yet to come out), the contradictions in the politics of the two parties will pose a bigger challenge to Dushyant.

Political experts maintain that not only were the votes given to the JJP against the BJP, the aspirations and ideology of JJP supporters are the antithesis to that of BJP culture.

Chander Prakash, a resident of Mirchpur village, said that though they wanted to punish Khattar in general and Capt Abhimanyu in particular, they are now feeling cheated as they lost the Finance Minister, who was the strongest minister in the Khattar Cabinet, in exchange for JJP’s Ram Kumar Gautam.

“Our plank to oppose the BJP and Khattar too looks irrelevant after Dushyant’s decision. Abhimanyu’s absence from the Cabinet has only strengthened Khattar. That has annoyed Narnaund voters,” he said.

However, Satish Kumar, resident of Mangalpur village in Uchana segment in Jind district, said that they are ready to give a chance to Dushyant. “We vented our ire against the non-performance of the previous representative. Had they worked for development, we would not have a reason to ditch them. As Deputy Chief Minister, Dushyant will have more powers to fulfil the aspirations of the people.”

Shiv Kumar of Makhand village said, “We are with Dushyant. He would have committed the same mistake Kuldeep Bishnoi did in 2009 when all of his MLAs ditched him to join the Congress government. It’s better to have a share in power and perform rather than keep on opposing the government from outside,” he said.