Chandigarh, August 28
Ahead of Assembly elections, Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) president Kuldeep Bishnoi today decided to snap his three-year alliance with the BJP, accusing the saffron party of repeatedly betraying him.

The HJC also forged a new understanding with Venod Sharma's Jan Chetna Party (JCP). Addressing a press conference, Bishnoi, who was accompanied by Venod Sharma, alleged that the BJP had betrayed him at every step. "We are dumping the BJP because it stands for betrayal. We tried our level best to keep the alliance working, but the BJP was not ready to stick to agreed alliance principles," he said.

The rift between the BJP and the HJC surfaced soon after the Lok Sabha elections as the Bishnoi-led outfit failed to win any of the two seats it had contested while the BJP bagged seven seats. The ties between the parties also deteriorated over differences over seat-sharing for the Assembly elections. Bishnoi wanted half of the 90 seats and demanded that he be declared the Chief Ministerial candidate of the alliance. The BJP opposed both the demands.

"I was never invited to BJP rallies or programmes. I was not even invited for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally at Rewari before the Lok Sabha elections. Though I attended the rally, I was made to sit in a corner and Modi even failed to acknowledge my presence. The party suffocated me," Bishnoi said.

"During the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP went ahead and allocated seats without consulting me in violation of the alliance agreement," he said, adding: "we were forced to accept Karnal and Hisar. Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj threatened to end the alliance if I inducted Venod Sharma into my party. Karnal was replaced with Sirsa and I ignored it because we wanted to keep the alliance working. The BJP even decided about the seat allocation and the candidate," he said. "When I was on my way to Sirsa where HJC candidate Sushil Indora was to file nomination papers, the then BJP chief, Rajnath Singh, called up to say that Sunita Duggal should be the HJC candidate, but I refused saying it was too late," Bishnoi claimed.

Accusing the BJP of trying to finish the regional parties, Bishnoi said the saffron party wanted the HJC to lose both the seats in the Lok Sabha elections as it did not once ask its alliance partner in Punjab, the SAD, not to campaign for the rival candidate of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in Hisar.

"The BJP chapter is closed. The HJC and the JCP have joined hands so that our votes are not divided and we can form the next government in Haryana. JCP chief Venod Sharma will be my mentor. We will soon work out the modalities of the alliance," Bishnoi said.

Venod Sharma, a former Congressman, said he believed that Bishnoi would make a good Chief Minister. "He will be the Chief Minister for five years and I will guide the government and the party. I had good relations with his father Bhajan Lal. We agreed to join hands as we believe that arbitrary selection by interviews must end and the Haryana Service Selection Commission should be abolished. Bishnoi has also agreed to the other demand that bureaucrats should not be given re-employment since they then overlook public interest and become government and individual stooges. These two points will also find mention in our manifestos. The JCP will release its manifesto at a rally on August 31," Sharma said.