Not averse to supporting any party, still a 'kingmaker': Dushyant Chautala

New Delhi, Oct 25: The Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), which won 10 seats in Haryana Assembly elections, held a meeting today in which Dushyant Chautala was appointed the leader of the legislative party. Chautala spoke to the media after the meeting and said any decision on lending support either to Congress or the BJP would be taken on the basis of Haryana's welfare.

"In the legislative party meet today, a resolution was passed that I be the leader of the legislative party," Chautala said.

Haryana got a fractured mandate, resulting in a hung Assembly, with the BJP winning 40 seats, Congress 31, JJP 10, independents 8 and INLD one. Initially, it emerged that the JJP would be the kingmaker, but the eight independents decided to support the BJP with which the party now has the majority to form government.

"The party which will agree to our Common Minimum Program under which we had taken the resolution of 75 percent jobs reservation for Haryanvis, and that of Chaudhary Devi Lal's idea of old age pension, JJP will give its support to that party," he said today.

"Till now we have not spoken to anybody on this issue as national executive was not clear on the agenda. Now we've been authorised,we'll talk to concerned people.Hopefully in few hrs or few days we will have positive result," he added.

Despite ending up six seats short of majority, the support of eight independent MLAs paved way for Manohar Lal Khattar to become the Haryana Chief Minister for the second time.

Asserting that neither the BJP or the Congress is untouchable for him, the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader Dushyant Chautala said that he will support any party which agrees with his organisation's common minimum programme. Speaking to reporters following a meeting of the JJP legislative party of 10 MLAs, Chautala kept his cards close to chest over whether his party will support the BJP or the Congress. He said he had so far not spoken to either the BJP or the Congress on the matter.

"No one is untouchable for us. We will support whichever party agrees to implement our agenda as part of a common minimum programme, " Chautala said.

He was elected leader of the JJP legislative party. The BJP has already claimed the support of a majority of MLAs in the 90-member Haryana assembly, with a number of independent legislators extending their support to the party. The BJP has won 40 seats followed by 31 of the Congress