Chandigarh, February 10
“We will contest the coming Lok Sabha elections on our own. We will have no truck with the BJP,” says Mr Bansi Lal, President of the Haryana Vikas Party (HVP).

Talking to The Tribune over the telephone, Mr Bansi Lal denied that he or any other office-bearer of the HVP had any meeting with any BJP leader in the recent past over the poll pact.

“Only on Sunday I gave a statement in Yamunanagar that the HVP will have no alliance with the BJP. But I am shocked to read reports in a section of the media today suggesting that my party may have some seat adjustment with the BJP. These news reports are baseless, malicious and motivated. Some vested interests were trying to create a confusion,” said Mr Bansi Lal, holding that the HVP was capable of contesting the Lok Sabha elections on its own.

“Since we are going to contest on our own, there is no question of offering three seats to the BJP,” quipped the HVP President.

“The response to our rallies and public meetings has been overwhelming. People are fed up with the present INLD (Indian National Lok Dal) Government. They have been reposing faith in our policies and programmes,” Mr Bansi Lal said, holding that the HVP would contest all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.

The media was free to criticise or write about the wrongdoings of politicians or political parties but it has no right to distort facts or spread political canards or rumours, he said.

The categorical statement of Mr Bansi Lal puts the BJP in a piquant situation. After the party chief, Mr Venkaiah Naidu hinted at moving away from the INLD in Haryana on Sunday, INLD chief and Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, retorted yesterday, severing all ties with the NDA Government at the Centre.

Mr Chautala’s INLD had been extending tactical support to the NDA at the Centre without joining it.

Though all three major political players in Haryana — the Congress, the Haryana Vikas Party and the Indian National Lok Dal — have now declared their intentions of contesting the coming Lok Sabha elections on their own, the BJP, which otherwise holds the balance of power, is in a tight spot.

Its hope of a possible tie-up with the HVP, too, has vanished after Mr Bansi Lal’s statement. It was the BJP, which had brought down the previous HVP Government in the state.

How many seats the BJP will contest on its own in Haryana remains to be seen.

Mr Chautala no more wants to piggyride either on the NDA government at the Centre or Mr Vajpayee’s popularity.