Chandigarh::

Dushyant Chautala, the friend-turned-foe of the BJP who is out to fell the government, should guard his flock, sources have indicated. As efforts are on to bring a no-confidence motion against the Nayab Singh Saini government after three Independent MLAs pulled support off the BJP, a handful of Mr Chautala’s MLAs met the former BJP Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar this afternoon, sources said.

The meeting took place at the residence of Minister of State Mahipal Dhanda in Panipat. Four MLAs of the Jannayak Janta Party or JJP were present for the half-hour meeting with Mr Khattar and Mr Dhanda held around 2 pm.

Sources said the leaders had discussed the current political crisis.

The host, Mr Dhanda, has refused to comment on the matter.

The BJP-led government in Haryana was plunged into crisis earlier this week as MLAs Sombir Sangwan (representing Dadri), Randhir Singh Gollen (from Pundri), and Dharampal Gonder (of Nilokheri) stopped support to the BJP government.

It was followed by a press conference by Mr Chautala where he, accompanied by senior leaders of the Congress, declared that the government has become a minority and he would provide outside support the Congress should they choose to form government.

Mr Chautala has chased it up with a letter to the Governor, demanding a floor test in the assembly. But there he ran up against a technicality — only one no-confidence motion can be brought against the government in a six-month period.

Given that the Congress had brought a no-confidence motion in February and a floor test was held in March, the Opposition is out of options.

Assembly elections in the due later this year — the term of the assembly ends in November.

Chandigarh:

Reacting to the remarks of Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan’s derogatory remarks targeted at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and at him, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday said that the people of the state will give a reply to the grand old party.  

Taking to the social media platform, X, the Haryana Chief Minister said, “The party steeped in nepotism and people enslaved by the mentality of nepotism will not be able to understand that Honorable Prime Minister, I consider 140 crore people of the country and 3.25 crore people of Haryana as my family. It is not me but the people of our family who will answer to Congress…”

Earlier on Saturday, Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan used derogatory language to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. 

In a viral video, the Haryana Congress chief can be heard using abusive words while referring to the Prime Minister and the Haryana Chief Minister.

The remarks made by Bhan led to a controversy with several BJP leaders condemning it and seeking an apology from the Congress party.

Reacting to it, Haryana BJP chief OP Dhankhar said that the Congress should apologize. 

“It was an unfortunate statement. The Congress should apologize. It should feel shame. Udai Bhan crossed all limits of indecency. But I saw another video of his, what is more unfortunate is that he is justifying his remarks”, Dhankhar said while speaking to ANI. 

Udai Bhan, seen to be a loyalist of former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, was made Haryana Congress chief in 2022. He replaced Kumari Selja who was made AICC in-charge of Chhattisgarh.

Asked about his remarks, Bhan remained unapologetic claiming that his words “were Haryanvi slang”.

“What have I said that is wrong…I have only described the truth. Is this language wrong, this is a normal language in Haryana. We call unmarried men by this slang in Haryana and that is not an abuse,” Udai Bhan told ANI.

“I have only spoken the truth. If I had said something wrong, like what was said by that MP, I would have apologised. This is just a light comment made at a press conference which has been made into a needless issue. This is normal language used in Haryana,” he added.

The BJP has demanded that the Congress take action against its state unit chief.

Party Spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi alleged that Congress has always used this kind of language for the Prime Minister.

“This video has caused extreme pain and anguish among BJP workers and the common man. This is below-the-belt language, it is the height of low-level politics which is being played by the Congress. Congress has always used this kind of language for the PM and his family,” he said.

“When one of our MPs made an unparliamentary remark in the House (Lok Sabha) our senior leader apologised for that and the party sent him a notice, what action will the Congress take against someone who is their state unit chief and thus the official voice of the party?” he asked.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)