Chandigarh, Sept. 18 -- Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday termed Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) as proxies of the ruling BJP.

In an apparent reaction to INLD chief Abhay Chautala's allegations that Hooda was in cahoots with the BJP, the Congress leader in a statement said that since the BJP cannot face the Congress directly in Haryana, it resorts to fighting proxy battles through such alliances. Hooda said that in 2019 the BJP fought a proxy battle with the support of the JJP and this time it has a tie up with the INLD. "For the Sirsa assembly seat, the BJP withdrew the nomination of its candidate to help INLD ally Gopal Kanda. Kanda also made a public statement disclosing the...