Jannayak Janata Party leader and former Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala on Wednesday said that his party followed the “alliance dharma”, or acted in the interest of its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, despite repeated insults meted out to him and his party leadership by members of the saffron party, reported Hindustan Times.

Chautala alleged that former Tripura Chief Minister and BJP’s Haryana state chief Biplab Deb made several attempts to break the alliance.

“Deb made remarks against me, and my party, and made all attempts to insult me,” Chautala said while addressing a rally in Haryana’s Hisar district on Wednesday, a day after the BJP snapped ties with his party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. “However, to fulfil the alliance dharma, I remained quiet every time.”

On Tuesday, the government in Haryana saw a change of guard after BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar resigned as chief minister and paved the way for his party colleague Nayab Singh Saini to form the new government.

The development had come amid reports that seat-sharing talks between the BJP and Jannayak Janata Party for the Lok Sabha elections had failed.

Chautala on Wednesday clarified that this was indeed the case, with the JJP having sought to contest the two Lok Sabha constituencies of Hisar and Bhiwani-Mahendergarh, whereas the BJP was not willing to offer it more than one seat in the state.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.

The former deputy chief minister said that the final decision regard the Jannayak Janata Party’s candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections will be taken by his father and co-founder of the party Ajay Chautala.

“[He] will decide whether we will contest on two seats, all seats or focus on Assembly polls,” Chautala. “If he asks me, I am ready to contest again from the Hisar parliamentary seat.”

The Assembly elections in Haryana are also expected to happen later this year.