New Delhi, Feb. 9: The Indian National Lok Dal, led by Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, became the eighth constituent to walk out of the NDA before the Lok Sabha elections.

Chautala today announced the decision to snap ties with the BJP and go it alone in the polls.

Although the Haryana BJP was keen to call off the alliance with the INLD, central BJP sources said efforts were on to forge an alliance with the party’s “original” partner, the Haryana Vikas Party, led by former chief minister Bansi Lal.

Speaking to reporters in Gurgaon, Chautala ruled out the scope of reconsidering his decision.

He accused the BJP for not abiding by the “coalition dharma”. According to a state government release, the BJP leadership’s “negative attitude” was responsible for the break-up.

Chautala also ruled out an alliance with the Congress citing “ideological differences”.

“Our party has always been opposing Congress policies and shall continue to do so in future,” he said.

Although the partnership with the INLD ensured five seats for the BJP in Haryana in 1999 — the other five were won by the INLD — BJP sources alleged that Chautala was “unfair” in the Assembly polls that followed, in which the BJP had fared badly. The sources alleged that the chief minister ensured the BJP’s defeat by putting up his own nominees as Independents or “rebels” in seats given to the ally.

This time, the BJP perceives that the INLD would do “badly” due to the anti-incumbency mood. Therefore, it wanted to distance itself. Ironically, the BJP had used the same logic to part ways with the Haryana Vikas Party in 1999.

At a rally in Haryana yesterday, BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu had indicated that severing ties with the INLD was inevitable.

“The INLD and the BJP units in the state want to fight elections alone. Therefore, we will not hurt the sentiments of the local people,” he had said in Guhan.