Senior leaders will talk to him and discuss the matter: Chautala on RK Gautam's resignation

A day after Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) vice president Ram Kumar Gautam resigned from the post, Haryana Deputy Chief Minister and party chief Dushyant Chautala said that senior party leaders will talk to Gautam and discuss the matter with him.

"He (Gautam) is a senior leader. If he has some grievance, he can come and tell the party members. We have not received his resignation yet. Senior party leaders will talk to him and discuss the matter," Chautala said when asked about Gautam's resignation.

Gautam resigned from the post on Wednesday as he was apparently miffed with the party's functioning.

"I have resigned from the post of party vice president," said Gautam, who is also a legislator.

However, he clarified that he has not left the party. "I will leave the party the day I cease to become an MLA," he asserted.

"I am not hurt that I was not made minister, but hurt that I got to know later that the alliance was sealed in a meeting at a Gurugram Mall," he said in an apparent reference to the JJP-BJP alliance in Haryana.

Gautam said that Chautala is holding 11 Cabinet portfolios which could have been distributed among party MLAs, adding that he should not forget that he became Deputy Chief Minister with the support of his party legislators.

Gautam had defeated Captain Abhimanyu, a minister in the previous BJP government, from Narnod Assembly constituency.

"Dushyant Chautala wants to become the tallest Jat leader by following the elders of his family. I have the support of 36 castes. He would have progressed had he made me a minister," the disgruntled leader said.

"He is sitting on 11 ministries. Where shall other MLAs go?" Gautam asked.

According to the official state government website, 10 departments are listed against Chautala's name, including Excise and Taxation and Industries and Commerce, among others.

In the elections, BJP had bagged 40 seats in the 90-member Haryana assembly, while the Congress bagged 31. After hectic parleys, the BJP had entered an alliance with Chautala's newly-formed party which had 10 seats.