BJP To Go Solo In Haryana Civic Polls, Testing Ground Ahead Of 2024

The BJP today said it will go solo in the Haryana civic elections scheduled on June 19. The BJP and the Jannayak Janata Party, or JJP, are currently in power in the state's civic bodies.

The JJP had been in talks with the BJP to fight the civic elections together again. With the BJP saying it would contest alone, the JJP's negotiations would likely end now.

"We will fight the municipal council election alone, and the district units will decide the municipality," Haryana BJP chief OP Dhankhar said today.

"The BJP district units will decide the candidates who will fight for the party in the municipality," he said, adding there will be a meeting in Panchkula on June 1 to work out a plan for the election.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party, or AAP, which came to power in neighbouring Punjab earlier this year, is also looking to put up a big fight in the Haryana civic polls as a testing ground ahead of the general elections in 2024.

The BJP, too, by going solo in the Haryana local elections, wants to check whether any harmful residual effects of the year-long farm laws controversy still exists, before the national elections nearly two years later.

The buzz is that local BJP leaders see a subtle but growing influence of the AAP among urban voters, especially after the AAP's first win in a full-fledged state. Delhi, where the AAP came to power first, is a Union Territory.

The Congress has restructured its organisational setup in Haryana ahead of the civic elections.