Chandigarh: Dissident MLA R. K. Gautam, who went public with his dissatisfaction over the BJP-INLD alliance in Haryana, was removed as BJP’s legislature party leader in the Assembly on Monday.

Party State unit president A. P. Manchanda said Naresh Malik was appointed as the party’s leader in the house.

Mr. Gautam, MLA from Narnaund, had openly criticised the party leadership for re-entering into alliance with the INLD of former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala. At a press conference here on November 16, he had come out in the open against the alliance and threatened to quit the party in “public interest.”

The MLA had lashed out at the party for joining hands with the INLD, which once “ill-treated” it while in power. “It is sad and painful that my party went ahead and re-entered into this alliance only with an eye to secure votes in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections,” he had said.

The fissures in the party came in the open when he lashed out at Mr. Manchanda and co-in charge for State affairs Harjit Singh Grewal, saying “both were unacceptable to the masses of Haryana and were only harming the cause of the party in the State”.

The INLD recently had returned to the NDA fold and the two parties announced to fight the upcoming Lok Sabha polls unitedly. The parties had snapped ties before the 2004 general elections. PTI

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