Four HJC lawmakers join Cong in Haryana, one more to join

Four of the six newly-elected legislators belonging to former chief minister Bhajan Lal's Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) on Monday joined the Congress party in Haryana, and another HJC lawmaker has also expressed his wish to join the ruling party.

Four HJC lawmakers join Cong in Haryana, one more to join

The four legislators, who were elected on the HJC ticket in the October 13 assembly poll, were specially flown in to Chandigarh and made to appear before assembly Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chatha in the assembly complex here and convey to him their decision to join the Congress party.

The HJC, which had six legislators in the assembly, is led by Bhajan Lal and his son Kuldeep Bishnoi. The move is a major setback to the HJC and Bishnoi.

The four legislators - Zile Ram, Vinod Bhayana, Satpal Sangwan and Narender Singh - gave letters to the speaker that they were breaking from the HJC and their group was joining the Congress party.

Chatha immediately declared the legislators as Congress members.

"With these legislators joining, the strength of the Congress has gone up to 44 in the assembly," Chatha told the media Monday evening.

"The merger of these legislators is 100 percent legal. They have legally split from the HJC. From today, these four are Congress legislators," Chatha said.

The remaining HJC legislators are Kuldeep Bishnoi, the HJC president, and Dharam Singh Chokker.

Late Monday evening, Chokker wrote to Speaker Chatha wishing to join the Congress. Chatha confirmed receiving Chokker's letter.

Earlier, Chatha said he had met the four legislators individually to ascertain whether they were willing to join the Congress or were under some pressure. "I found that they were really willing to come under the fold of the Congress and had joined it willingly," Chatha said.

Describing the move as constitutional, the speaker said that section 10-A of the anti-defection Law has a provision that in case two-third members of a political party get membership of a political party, they need not form a group for merger.

Retaliating to the setback, Bishnoi said that one legislator, Satpal Sangwan, had already been expelled from the HJC. He had communicated it to the Election Commission and sought the disqualification of Sangwan from the assembly.

The Congress emerged as the single largest party in the 90-member assembly with 40 seats, but was six short of simple majority. With 44 seats, the Congress is in a more comfortable position.

Presently, the assembly has 89 legislators and 44 belong to the Congress.

One seat, Ellenabad, was vacated by former chief minister and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief Om Prakash Chautala last week. He had won from two assembly constituencies last month but retained the Uchana Kalan seat.

The Congress was hobnobbing with the HJC to make it join the party and the government. But Bishnoi was opposing the move to merge the HJC with the Congress.

Most HJC leaders are former Congressmen, including Bishnoi and Bhajan Lal.

The Congress already has the support of seven Independent legislators and the lone Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator in the house.

State Congress president Phool Chand Mullana said that all legislators who had merged with the Congress had reposed their faith in policies of the Congress. "They have, therefore, been given membership of the party unconditionally," Mullana said.

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