With the BJP and the Jannayak Janata Party declaring that they will form a coalition government in Haryana, the Congress on Friday said it was now out in the open that the Dushyant Chautala-led JJP was and will remain the "B-team" of the BJP.
The opposition party's sharp attack came soon after it became clear that the BJP was set to form the new government in Haryana after clinching an alliance with the JJP, which has won 10 seats in the 90-member assembly, by giving it the post of deputy chief minister.
BJP president Amit Shah announced at a press conference, held with JJP leader Chautala, that the chief minister will be from his party and the deputy chief minister from the regional party.
Hitting out at the alliance, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said it was now out in the open that the "JJP-Lok Dal (INLD) were, and will always be, the BJP's B-team".
"When the BJP wants to gain power by dividing the society, sometimes Raj Kumar Saini and sometimes the JJP-Lok Dal will stand as a puppet," he said in a tweet in Hindi.
The public has now come to know the reality, he said.
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Surjewala also claimed that it was truth that the Khattar government has not been given the mandate by the people.
"It is also true that the JJP asked for people's mandate against the BJP and won 10 seats," he said in a series of tweets.
It is also true that the JJP promised that it will never align with the BJP, Surjewala said.
He accused the JJP of choosing power over promises.
Earlier in the day, Surjewala accused the saffron party of using allurements of money and power to get a majority and said a government formed through such means would be "illegitimate".
A row erupted after Haryana Lokhit Party leader and Sirsa MLA Gopal Kanda, accused of abetment to suicide, claimed he and the Independents have "decided to extend unconditional support to the BJP".
Lashing out at the BJP for taking Kanda's support, Surjewala told reporters, "I think you should look at the statements made by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah at the time when Gopal Kanda was a minister in the (Congress) government in Haryana when we forced him to resign after registration of a case and also removed him from ministership."
Asked about the narrow margins of defeat of some Congress candidates and recount at some seats in Haryana, Surjewala said, "We all knew how money and muscle power and the ruling dispensation used the entire machinery to help certain candidates and the medium of recounting was used to defeat four-five Congress candidates."