With the Election Commission (EC) announcing that Haryana Assembly elections will take place on October 1, all eyes are on 36-year-old Dushyant Chautala, who emerged as a kingmaker after the 2019 elections when his Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) helped the BJP form a coalition government. However, after being abandoned by the BJP before this year’s Lok Sabha polls and facing a declining electoral presence, Dushyant now confronts a significant challenge: keeping his party united.

The JJP must carve out its own space in what is shaping up to be a direct battle between the ruling BJP and the main Opposition Congress. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), and the JJP are also in the race.

In 2019, the JJP captured 14.9% of the vote share, winning 10 out of the 87 seats it contested. But in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it secured just 0.87% of the vote despite contesting all 10 parliamentary constituencies in Haryana, with all its candidates losing their security deposits.

In December 2023, Dushyant’s attempt to challenge his former ally, the BJP, by fielding 19 candidates in the Rajasthan Assembly elections ended in embarrassment, as all his candidates lost their security deposits. The JJP’s 0.14% vote share was even surpassed by the “None of the Above” (NOTA) option, which received 0.96% of the votes.

Dissent and defections have left the JJP in disarray. At least five of its 10 MLAs have rebelled and pledged support to the BJP. The party approached Speaker Gian Chand Gupta seeking the disqualification of two MLAs: Barwala MLA Jogi Ram Sihag and Narwana MLA Ram Niwas. However, before any decision was made, the EC announced the Assembly elections. Three other JJP MLAs—Ram Kumar Gautam from Narnaund, Devender Singh Babli from Tohana, and Ishwar Singh from Guhla—have been vocal critics of Dushyant both inside and outside the Assembly. They are unlikely to be considered for tickets in this election.

In April, another blow to Dushyant came when JJP state president Nishan Singh quit the party and joined the Congress. On Friday, the JJP’s Uklana MLA Anoop Dhanak, a loyalist of Dushyant’s father Ajay Chautala, also resigned from the party, citing personal reasons. Dhanak, who was made a minister in 2019 after the JJP joined the coalition government, is expected to join the BJP.

Following the debacle in the Lok Sabha elections, all units of the JJP were dissolved. Dushyant, his father Ajay Chautala, who serves as the national JJP president, and other party leaders began restructuring the party. On Friday, soon after the EC announced the election schedule for Haryana, the JJP released a list of 50 office-bearers as part of its restructuring efforts.

The JJP, an offshoot of the former Chief Minister O. P. Chautala-led INLD, was founded on December 9, 2018, following infighting within the Chautala family.

After joining and remaining in the BJP-led coalition government as an ally, Dushyant faced significant criticism from within his party and from the state’s electorate during the year-long farmers’ agitation from 2020-2021. Despite this, he stayed with the BJP until the party severed ties with him earlier this year.

Since then, Dushyant has been openly criticizing the BJP and its policies. After the EC’s announcement on Friday, Dushyant declared, “The JJP is fully prepared to contest the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections. Party workers have been instructed to be on the ground for the next 45 days, working around the clock. The party’s preparations to contest all 90 seats are in full swing. For the last five months, the people of Haryana have been frustrated with the BJP government’s policies. CM Nayab Singh Saini has only misled the people by reversing his predecessor’s decisions and making false promises. Likewise, people have not forgotten the 10 years of misgovernance under the Congress and Bhupinder Singh Hooda. The time has come for the people of Haryana to rid themselves of both the BJP and Congress.”