Chandigarh, Nov 9 (IANS) In a dramatic political development, four newly-elected legislators belonging to former chief minister Bhajan Lal’s Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) Monday joined the Congress party in Haryana.
The four legislators, who were elected on the HJC ticket in the Oct 13 assembly poll, were specially flown into Chandigarh and made to appear before assembly Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chatha in the assembly complex here.

The HJC, which had six legislators in the assembly, is led by Bhajan Lal and his son Kuldeep Bishnoi. The move is a major setback to the HJC and Bishnoi.

The four legislators, Zile Ram, Vinod Bhayana, Satpal Sangwan and Rao Narender Singh, gave letters to the speaker saying they were breaking from the HJC and their group was joining the Congress party.

Chatha immediately declared the legislators as Congress members.

“With these legislators joining, the strength of the Congress has gone up to 44 in the assembly,” Chatha told the media Monday evening.

“The merger of these legislators is 100 percent legal. They have legally split from the HJC. From today, these four are Congress legislators,” Chatha said.

With these four dumping the HJC, the party will have only two legislators in the house. These are Kuldeep Bishnoi, the HJC president, and Dharam Singh Chokker.

The Congress had emerged as the single largest party in the 90-member assembly with 40 seats, but was six short of simple majority.

The Congress had been hobnobbing with the HJC to join the party and the government. But Bishnoi was opposing the move to merge the HJC with the Congress.

Most HJC leaders are former Congressmen, including Bishnoi and Bhajan Lal.

The Congress already has the support of seven Independent legislators and the lone Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator in the house.