JJP emerged from a split in the
Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) which itself had been cause by infighting among the Chautala family. An INLD rally at
Gohana in October 2018 had seen heckling of
Abhay Chautala, a son of INLD leader
Om Prakash Chautala for which
Dushyant Chautala, a grandson, and his younger brother,
Digvijay Chautala, were blamed. When Dushyant and Digvijay were expelled from the INLD for allegedly permitting indiscipline at the rally, their father,
Ajay Chautala, supported them and so he, too, was expelled from the INLD. The JJP was formally launched at a rally in
Jind in December 2018 by
Dushyant Chautala who held a seat in the
Lok Sabha of the national
Parliament of India, from when he was an INLD member. He said that the party's name was in honour of
Devi Lal, a former
Deputy Prime Minister of India whose supporters in Haryana refer to him as
Jan Nayak, and that the party intended to follow his principles. Dushyant's father, Ajay, absent from the
Jind rally, being at that time in jail in relation to an alleged scam, as also was
Om Prakash Chautala. Despite now being in opposite political factions, and claiming that the JJP was standing for values which the INLD had abandoned, Dushyant nonetheless asked supporters at the rally to chant "Long Live OP Chautala".
Abhay Chautala who was leading the INLD in the absence of
Om Prakash Chautala reacted to the news by saying that "Everybody is not capable of floating a
political party and then continue with it". At least three INLD
MLAs, including Dushyant's mother,
Naina Singh Chautala were early members of the new JJP. JJP in their debut
2019 Haryana Legislative Assembly election won 10 seats and the party President
Dushyant Chautala was appointed as the
Deputy Chief Minister of Haryana on 25 October 2019. It however drew a blank in the
2024 Haryana Legislative Assembly election and its vote share was reduced to just 0.9%. All but one of its candidates including former deputy cm
Dushyant Chautala lost their
election deposit. == Symbolism ==