BJP demands first half of CM term post if HJC-BJP alliance wins

AMBALA: A BJP leader today said his party's candidate should be made chief minister for first half of the five year term if HJC-BJP alliance comes to power in the state during the next Assembly polls.

Addressing a rally, senior leader of the BJP legislature party in Haryana Assembly, Anil Vij, today said the earlier decision of making HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi the Chief Minister for the first two and half years be "reviewed."

The BJP should be offered this opportunity first, he said, without elaborating the reason for the demand.

He was addressing a rally of party workers in Ambala City organised to welcome the newly elected president of Haryana BJP, Ram Bilas Sharma.

Earlier, it was decided between the two parties that Bishnoi would be the Chief Minister for the first two and half years' followed by BJP candidate, in case the alliance forms the government. Polls are due in one-and-a-half years.

Vij said the BJP-HJC alliance had emerged as a viable alternative to the ruling Congress, "as people are very much annoyed by the anti-people policy of the state government".

He said the leaders and workers of both parties were working jointly for strengthening the alliance and there was no dispute between the two parties.

Sharma did not speak on this issue during his speech today.

A few months ago, the then Haryana BJP President Krishan Pal Gujjar, while speaking at a party rally in Karnal, had announced that for the first two and half years, Bishnoi would be the Chief Minister if the alliance came to power.

On December 2 last year when the HJC held its foundation day rally in Sirsa, senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj had echoed similar views.