Jannayak Janta Party leader Ram Kumar Gautam on Thursday told reporters that his party’s alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party was formed after a meeting held at a mall in Gurugram. Gautam clarified that he had resigned as the party’s vice president, but added that he had not given up the party membership, ANI reported.

The Assembly elections in Haryana were held on October 21, and the results were declared on October 24. The BJP won 40 out of 90 seats, the Congress 31 constituencies and the Jannayak Janta Party 10 seats. The rest were bagged by Independents. The BJP formed the government with the help of the Dushyant Chautala-led party and some Independents.

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“I am not hurt that I was not made minister, but hurt that I got to know later that the alliance [JJP-BJP] has been sealed in a meeting at a mall,” he said. “People are hurt and all the MLAs are very upset. Dushyant [Chautala] took all the big posts. What about the other nine MLAs? Haven’t they been voted by people? It is a huge blow for us.”

At a press conference on Wednesday, Gautam had said Chautala had become the deputy chief minister because of the effort of his MLAs, NDTV reported. Gautam said he was not expecting to contest the elections but Chautala and his father Ajay Chautala were insistent as “they knew I was the only one who can defeat sitting BJP MLA Captain Abhimanyu”. Gautam won from the Narnaund in Hisar district by 12,029 votes.

Chautala said he was unaware of Gautam’s resignation and would speak to the legislator.

Meanwhile, Congress leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda accused the JJP leaders of forging the alliance with the BJP “due to opportunism”. “They way they [JJP leaders] established their party and alliance shows that there are differences among them,” he told ANI. “Their leaders do not share a common ideology.” Hooda also criticised the alliance for not releasing a common minimum programme – a declaration highlighting the aims of a coalition government – even after three months.