Khattar, ministers resign ahead of Cabinet reshuffle; BJP, JJP head for a split

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar resigned on Tuesday morning along with his ministers ahead of a Cabinet reshuffle, with its ties with its alliance partner JJP headed for a split ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The top leaderships of both the BJP and JJP (Jannayak Janata Party) were closeted in separate meetings of their respective MLAs. Khattar also held a meeting of all BJP ministers at his residence, before they submitted their resignations.

Government insiders told The Indian Express of the possibility of a “complete Cabinet reshuffle”, with no JJP representative in it. The BJP will reportedly take the support of Independent MLAs instead, accommodating a few in the Cabinet.

Seat-sharing talks for the Lok Sabha elections have been stuck, with the BJP stalling the JJP’s demand for 2 of the 10 constituencies in Haryana. The JJP and BJP had come together in a post-poll arrangement in the state after the BJP fell short of a majority in the 2019 Assembly polls.

JJP leader and Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala met BJP president J P Nadda in New Delhi on Monday, where it was reportedly conveyed to him that the party would not be sharing any Lok Sabha seats with him. This was hours after Dushyant shared the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an event. A scheduled meeting of Dushyant with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday morning did not happen.

The JJP MLAs, led by Dushyant, will be meeting in New Delhi, where the party will reportedly formulate its future strategy. Currently, Dushyant apart from Anoop Dhanak and Devender Singh Babli are the three JJP ministers in the Haryana government.

The JJP has been seeking the Hisar and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seats, but the BJP state unit wants to contest all the 10