Union Home minister Amit Shah on Sunday made it clear that the Bharatiya Janata Party would contest all 10 parliamentary seats in Haryana on its own without an alliance partner. Sounding the poll bugle for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, Shah addressed a rally in Sirsa where he made a strong pitch for the BJP and said that the government had delivered the maximum under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Manohar Khattar’s leadership.

“Twice, you people from Haryana have ensured Narendra Modi’s victory by giving all the 10 seats from Haryana. This time also I would like you to ensure that lotus blooms in all the 10 seats of Haryana to ensure BJP gets over 300 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls,” Shah said, addressing the rally.

Also Read: 2023 will be an exciting year for investors: Amit Shah

The Home minister’s declaration of the BJP going solo in the Lok Sabha polls comes amid strained ties between the BJP and the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), the ruling alliance partners in the state. Notably, prior to Shah’s declaration, JJP leader and Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala had already announced that the JJP intends to contest all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the elections next year.

During his address, Shah stopped short of naming the JJP or Dushyant, but made it a point to invoke former Deputy PM Chaudhary Devi Lal, also Dushyant’s great-grandfather.

Also Read: Lok Sabha election ‘outcome’ will ‘surprise’ people, says Rahul Gandhi

“Today, when I have come here I would also like to remember Chaudhary Devi Lal (former Deputy PM). Devi Lal had seen lots of dreams for Haryana’s farmers. Nobody else has fulfilled those. Our Narendra Modi has fulfilled those (dreams),” Shah said, seeking to counter JJP’s claim of being the sole party following in the footsteps of Devi Lal.

During his 20-minute speech, Shah also trained guns at the previous Congress government led by CM Bhupinder Hooda over allegations of corruption during his regime from 2005 to 2014.

“Hooda government was a 3D — Darbari, Damad aur Dealer ki Sarkar. Manohar Lal has eliminated all the three Ds… Manohar Lal is first Chief Minister of entire Haryana. Earlier, Chief Minister only used to be of Rohtak. After the BJP government was formed, Modi ji’s all schemes were implemented at the ground level by Manohar Lal across Haryana,” Shah said, adding that Khattar had fared much better than Hooda in terms of investment and infrastructure development, farmers’ welfare, crop-prices, direct benefit transfer to farmers in their bank accounts etc.