BSP's former Haryana state president Bharti joins INLD

The INLD supremo also hit out at the BJP-JJP dispensation, alleging it had failed on all fronts. He claimed that people were fed up with the current dispensation and exuded confidence that the INLD would win the bypoll to the Baroda assembly seat, whenever it is held.

The Bahujan Samaj Party's former Haryana unit president Prakash Bharti on Monday joined the opposition Indian National Lok Dal here. Bharti joined the INLD in presence of its senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala.

Hitting out at the BJP-JJP coalition government in Haryana, Bharti told reporters that the ruling dispensation "is looting the state". "This government has failed completely. Today...farmers, workers, businessmen, common people are unhappy with this government,” he said.

Referring to INLD president and former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, who joined the event later, Bharti said that the veteran leader has been the chief minister of the state on several occasions and people have seen the performance of his governments. He said that people earlier gave enough chance to the Congress and now even the present BJP-led dispensation, but they let them down.

“INLD is the only viable alternative before people now,” he said. In an informal interaction with journalists on the sidelines of the event, Om Prakash Chautala, sentenced to jail in a teachers recruitment scam in Haryana and currently out on parole, alleged that the Delhi government had been delaying his release going against the jail manual.

Chautala said that the jail manual specifies that the prisoners above 65 years and those having physical disabilities should be released, “but I have not been released even though I am above 85 years of age”. The INLD supremo also hit out at the BJP-JJP dispensation, alleging it had failed on all fronts.

He claimed that people were fed up with the current dispensation and exuded confidence that the INLD would win the bypoll to the Baroda assembly seat, whenever it is held. Krishan Hooda of the Congress, who represented the Baroda assembly seat in Sonipat district, passed away two months ago at the age of 75 following a prolonged illness, necessitating the bypoll.