BJP to elect Legislature Party leader on Saturday in Haryana

Chandigarh: A meeting of the Haryana BJP Legislature Party will be held on Saturday to elect a leader, a senior party leader said on Friday.

The meeting will be held at 11 a.m. in Chandigarh, BJP National General Secretary Anil Jain said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and BJP General Secretary Arun Singh will attend the meeting as observers.

After the election of the Legislature Party leader, the party will stake a claim for formation of the next government.

The BJP, which is six short of a majority in Haryana, got a shot in the arm on Friday as tainted MLA Gopal Kanda and seven other independents extended their support to Manohar Lal Khattar to form the government in the state.

The independents included Nayan Pal Rawat (Prithla), Randhir Singh Gollen (Pundri), Sombir Sangwan (Dadri), Balraj Kundu (Meham), Congress rebel Ranjit Singh (Rania), Dharam Pal Gonder (Nilokheri) and Rakesh Daulatabad (Badshahpur).

Daulatabad, Kundu, Rawat, Gollen, Sangwan and Gonder are all BJP rebels.

Late on Thursday, 53-year-old Kanda flew to Delhi in a chartered flight for a meeting with the top BJP leadership.

The less than a year old Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), which broke away from the state's once major regional Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) owing to family disputes, won 10 seats, while the Congress won 31 seats.

Eight BJP ministers lost the polls along with state party chief Subhash Barala.

BJP's outgoing ministers -- Captain Abhimanyu, O.P. Dhankar, Ram Bilas Sharma, Kavita Jain, Krishan Lal Panwar, Manish Grover, Karan Dev Kamboj and Krishan Kumar Bedi -- all faced humiliating defeats.

Public Health and Engineering Minister Banwari Lal won the Bawal seat and Health Minister Anil Vij retained his seat from Ambala Cantonment.

Two sitting ministers, Rao Narbir Singh and Vipul Goel, were denied tickets and fresh faces were brought in. However, both lost the elections.