Former Haryana MLA Rampal Majra rejoined the Indian National Lok Dal on Wednesday and was appointed the party’s state unit chief, a post lying vacant after Nafe Singh Rathee was shot dead in February.

Majra joined the BJP ahead of the 2019 assembly elections and later quit the party during the farmers’ agitation against the now-repealed farm laws. He rejoined the INLD in the presence of senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala in Chandigarh.

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Interacting with reporters, Chautala said Majra had been associated with the INLD since long and held various positions. “We welcome him back. Our workers and party leadership wanted to entrust him with a big responsibility. Party president OP Chautala took the decision to appoint Majra as INLD’s state unit chief. We will work to strengthen the party. He has been appointed state unit chief,” Abhay Chautala said.

Majra, a three-time former MLA, said he was associated with the INLD since the time of late Chaudhary Devi Lal.

Hitting out at the BJP government in Haryana, he said, “The government is making claims of transparency, but so many paper leaks have taken place during their rule. Their claims of giving jobs on merit are also hollow. The plight of farmers is before all. They have kept the Sutlej Yamuna Link canal issue lingering. They scrapped the Dadupur Nalvi canal scheme, but signed an MoU with the Rajasthan government on the Yamuna water-sharing issue without ensuring feasibility,” he said.

“The Haryana government claimed the MoU was aimed at addressing the challenges posed by surplus rainwater. If that was the case, why did they scrap the Dadupur Nalvi scheme which would have done the same?” Majra said.

Meanwhile, with Nayab Singh Saini replacing Manohar Lal Khattar as chief minister, Abhay Chautala claimed that there was resentment among MLAs of the ruling party and Independents supporting the BJP government in the state.

Former minister Anil Vij has publicly said that he was not consulted when Khattar was replaced and also aired other grievances, which indicates that he is upset, Abhay Chautala said. “The kind of situation which prevails, this government can fall by the time Lok Sabha elections are over,” he claimed.

Abhay Chautala said it has been over a week since Saini took over as chief minister, “but he has not spoken a word on law and order or the farmers’ issue”.

“The entire set-up is still the old one. Nothing has changed. Khattar is not even an MLA now but he still enjoys the protocol of a chief minister under this government. There are other ex-chief ministers, but the same protocol is not extended to them,” he said.

Abhay Chautala, who is fighting the Lok Sabha election from Kurukshetra, said ever since the INLD announced his candidature “many people seem to have problems”. His party is contesting all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.

“(AAP’s Lok Sabha candidate from Kurukshetra) Sushil Gupta has said that I am an outsider in Kurukshetra. He forgets that he is a Rajya Sabha member from Delhi. I have an old association with Kurukshetra from where my son has also contested,” he said.

On the JJP and BJP going their separate ways recently, Chautala said he doubts if the JJP will even contest the Lok Sabha elections. “If they do, their vote share will be less than NOTA,” he added.