One an infant, and the other a toddler. Together, the five-month-old Jannayak Janata Party of Dushyant Singh Chautala and the Aam Aadmi Party of Arvind Kejriwal expect to sweep out the BJP from Haryana.
"The broom and the chappals will do what the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal have not been able to do," declared Dushyant, as he and AAP leader Gopal Rai shared the dais on Friday and announced their alliance in Haryana in the course of the Lok Sabha polls.
While the broom is the symbol of the AAP, the chappal is the JJP' s symbol. The two parties had joint hands for Jind by-election in January, and came second, giving a crushing blow to the Congress and the INLD.
A three-member coordination committee will announce in the next 72 hours the names of the seven seats where the JJP candidates will take on others, and the three where the AAP candidates will contest, Dushyant said. The JJP, which does not even have a unit in place in the national capital, has however promised support to the AAP in Delhi, Goa, Chandigarh and Punjab where they may have some influence.
The three-member committee will also present a joint vision document for Haryana. The AAP will, however, release a national manifesto, said party leader Gopal Rai.
Rai and Dushyant said the alliance will continue during the Haryana Vidhan Sabha polls due in November this year.
Responding to why the AAP is taking on the Congress with whom they were trying to ally in Delhi, Rai said while they had a thousand differences with the Congress, their intention was to throw out the “dictatorial and divisive” BJP by joining hands with the Congress. “While we alone can keep BJP away in Delhi, with the Congress, we could have defeated the saffron party in 35 seats across Punjab, Haryana, Goa and Rajasthan," he elaborated.
Dushyant described the synergy the JJP and the AAP would bring to their alliance in Haryana, saying the AAP had won over five lakh votes in the state assembly polls, while the INLD had taken 26 per cent vote share. "The INLD had come a close second in many constituencies. Since we formed the JJP, INLD had a little over two per cent votes. So this value addition makes it clear we can sweep Haryana."
Dushyant said Arvind Kejriwal was like an elder brother to him, so he would do as he says. But being the younger one he had rights to ask for more!
The alliance has dreams of ending traditional style of politics, and with the help of their youthful supporters, ensuring fresh winds of change blow in the state.
Dushyant also emphasised his great grand father late deputy prime minister Devi Lal' s legacy.
