Minutes after taking oath as MLA, Abhay Chautala says: Will resign again if farmers ask me to

The INLD general secretary on November 2 won the bypoll to Ellenabad Assembly seat, which had been necessitated by his resignation in support of the farmers agitating against the Centre’s three agri laws.

Earlier, Chautala, who is the son of the INLD president and former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, drove a tractor to the Vidhan Sabha building from his Sector 9 residence. He was accompanied by some of his family members, INLD state unit president Nafe Singh Rathi and former Haryana DGP MS Malik. He was administered oath of office by Speaker Gian Chand Gupta.

Talking to the reporters after taking oath, the INLD leader alleged that the state government blatantly misused official machinery in the bypolls and and tried to lure the voters with money.

“We made 15 complaints to the Election Commission regarding the violation of the model code of conduct and also gave proof, including videos, in this regard but we did not get any response. We demand an inquiry by a sitting judge into blatant misuse of official machinery,” the MLA said.

He said in a peaceful constituency, heavy deployment of police and paramilitary forces defied logic.

“They made it look like this bypoll was being held in Kashmir Valley. BJP candidate and those campaigning in his favour used to be accompanied by 20 vehicles of police and paramilitary forces,” said Abhay Chautala.

On a question on his victory margin narrowing this time as against the 2019 Assembly polls when he had won by nearly 12,000 votes, Abhay Chautala said last time only 57,000 votes were polled in his favour in comparison to nearly 65,000 this time.

“This is despite the fact that the BJP, JJP and the Haryana Lokhit Party were fighting the polls together against me and even the Congress had joined hands with them to see that I lose, but their hopes were dashed,” said Chautala.

Abhay said JJP chief Ajay Singh Chautala and his family tried their best to see that he loses the bypolls.

“Ajay Singh, his both sons (Deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala, and Digvijay Chautala), bhabhi (sister-in-law Naina Chautala) used to campaign door-to-door until late in the night. More than (BJP-JJP candidate) Gobind Kanda, it was they who were fighting polls,” he said.

Abhay Chautala said the Congress candidate had got 35,000 votes in the 2019 Assembly polls from the constituency but he lost security deposits this time. He said the poor show by the Congress resulted in some votes being transferred to the BJP candidate.

Meanwhile, when asked that Abhay has said he will resign again if farmers him to, Dushyant Chautala said, “He has made resignation thing a joke. Does an elected representative have no responsibility towards those who chose him. This is why I often say he is a non-serious politician.”

Dushyant said Gobind Kanda secured nearly 60,000 votes and gave a tough fight to Abhay, which in itself was a victory for BJP-JJP workers.

Making a reference to Abhay, Dushyant said those who used to claim that they will win with a margin of over 30,000 votes have been shown the mirror by the people.

The INLD leader had defeated his nearest rival JJP-backed BJP candidate Gobind Kanda by a margin of 6,739 votes. Pawan Beniwal of the Congress came a distant third.