New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party has staked a claim to form the government in Haryana with the support of ten Jannayak Janta Party MLAs.Senior BJP leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad, Manohar Lal Khattar, state party chief Subhash Barala, who had resigned after his party failed to get a majority on its own, and national general secretary Arun Singh met Haryana governor Satyadeo Narain Arya late in the afternoon on Saturday.Ending speculation, Khattar said that Dushyant Chautala would be his deputy in the cabinet. Addressing reporters, Khattar said, “We have stake claim to form govt in Haryana. The governor has accepted our proposal and invited us. I have tendered my resignation which has been accepted. Tomorrow at 2:15 pm, oath-taking ceremony will be held at Raj Bhavan. Dushyant Chautala will take oath as deputy CM.”Some of the independent MLAs who pledged unconditional support to the saffron party were also present. However, the BJP said that it will not accept support from the rape-accused independent MLA Gopal Kanda. After Kanda, who was elected from Sirsa, declared his support for the party, saying that his family had deep connections with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP found itself in the midst of a backlash.Both the opposition and some senior leaders like Uma Bharati questioned the party’s decision to seek help from the MLA. The opposition reminded the BJP that it was the saffron party which had protested against Kanda, when he was accused of sexual harassment a few years ago, and forced him to resign from the Haryana cabinet under the then chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.Also read: Haryana: After Fighting Each Other, BJP-JJP Ally to Form GovernmentEarlier in the day, Khattar was unanimously elected as the leader of the BJP’s legislative party in Haryana. On Friday, when BJP decided that it would be more prudent to avoid Kanda’s support, Amit Shah met JJP leader Dushyant Chautala and announced a post-poll alliance with the fledgeling party.Shah also declared that his party was ready to offer the position of the deputy chief minister to the JJP to show its respect for the “spirit” of the mandate. The BJP with 40 seats in a 90-member assembly is six short of a majority.However, there still remained some confusion over who would become the deputy chief minister. JJP leaders met again to take a decision on whether Dushyant Chautala should helm its affairs in the cabinet or not. This morning, speculations were rife that his mother Naina Chautala, who was elected from Badhra, could be the next deputy chief minister. Several JJP leaders told the media that Naina’s nomination would help get Haryana its first woman deputy chief minister.JJP’s chief Dushyant Chautala with the party’s newly elected MLAs. Photo: PTI/Manvender VashistHowever, Khattar cleared the air by saying that Dushyant himself would take over as deputy chief minister.Meanwhile, there was speculation in the morning that the Khattar government would decide to have two deputy chief ministers. The saffron party has previously used this formula to placate different sections within the party in Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.Anil Vij, six-time MLA from the Ambala Cantonment, the party’s senior-most leader in the state and the sports and health minister in the outgoing cabinet, was said to be favourite for the second deputy chief ministerial chair. Vij is among the two ministers who won; at least seven ministers of the Khattar government have lost their seats.However, the saffron party later clarified that there would be only one deputy chief minister. Vij would have to be content with a ministerial position again. “Indeed, I am the senior-most among BJP’s elected MLAs, as on date. I had been a six-time MLA. Sometimes, the political circumstances are such that decisions need to be taken in the larger interest of the state,” he told reporters.Also read: Haryana and Maharashtra Dent Perception That BJP Is InvincibleDushyant Chautala is being projected as the next biggest Jat leader of the state. His father Ajay Chautala has been in prison in a teacher-recruitment corruption case. Soon after the JJP decided to support the BJP government, Ajay was granted a furlough for two weeks and is expected to be out of prison by Saturday evening or Sunday morning.However, Dushyant has said that the reason the JJP is supporting the BJP-led government is so that its agenda can be fulfilled. Some of the key demands it has raised include the implementation of a 75% reservation in jobs for the youth in Haryana and an increase in old-age pension.Yet, he may have a hard time explaining to his voters why the party decided to back the BJP despite promising that it would not do so during the campaign. Riding on the coattails of resentment against the Khattar government, Chautala’s party became a force to be reckoned with after the assembly elections.