Seven independent winning candidates and one leader from Haryana Lokhit Party have decided to extend support to the BJP after the poll results came out for the Haryana state polls, news agency IANS reported.
After the results of the election came out on Thursday, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell six short seats of the halfway mark needed to form the next government.
The Congress won 31 seats, Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) 10, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) one each. Seven candidates won as Independents.
Lokhit Party leader Gopal Kanda has offered support to the BJP and claimed that at least 5 independent MLAs on are his side.
Ranjit Singh, an independent candidate from Haryana's Rania constituency, has also pledged support to the BJP. "I have openly said that I extend my support to Bharatiya Janata Party," Singh said.
Three independent MLAs met Nadda at his residence and extended support to the saffron party, BJP leader Jawahar Yadav said.
The three MLAs are Dharampal Gondan, Nayanpal Rawat and Sombir Sangwan
Another independent candidate, Randhir Golan went ahead to say that BJP is his "mother" and he pledged his support to the party.
"These three independent MLAs reached J P Nadda's house with an intention to extend support to the BJP government," said Yadav, who is accompanying the MLAs.
"I was a BJP worker for 30 years. I was in BJP, where did I go? BJP is my mother," Golan said.
Rakesh Daulatabad, an independent who won from Badshahpur constituency, is also meeting Nadda, he said.
"We have come here to extend our support to the Khattar government in Haryana," Rawat, an independent MLA from Prithla constituency, said
BJP's Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday met BJP working President J P Nadda in Delhi to discuss a way forward as the ruling BJP emerged as the single largest party with 40 seats in a hung assembly.
Khattar said he is optimistic of forming the new government in Haryana.
Khattar left for Delhi in a helicopter. He boarded the chopper from the helipad near his official residence here.
He met the party's senior leadership and discussed the way forward in the wake of the BJP needs the support of a few MLAs to form the government.
The party has the option either to take the support of the Independents alone or approach the JJP or both. The sources said all these things will be thoroughly discussed when Khattar meets senior party leaders.
The sources said the BJP is likely to stake a claim for another term in the state.
The BJP's final tally came as a disappointment for a party that had won all 10 parliamentary seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and predicted that it will cross 75 seats this time in the assembly.
But eight of 10 ministers fielded by the BJP lost.
In the general elections, the BJP cornered 58 per cent of the vote share, which has now dropped to about 36.5 per cent.
For the state's main opposition party Congress, hit by infighting that required a change in the state leadership ahead of the October 21 election, the results gave it a shot at power if the JJP and some Independents extend support.
Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had on Thursday appealed to non-BJP outfits to join hands.
"This mandate is against the BJP. The JJP, INLD and others, including the Independents, should join hands with the Congress to keep the BJP at bay," he told reporters in Rohtak.
Hooda had alleged that the administration was "putting pressure" on the Independents at the behest of the BJP and not allowing them to move freely.
(with inputs from agencies)
