Not merely an alliance but ‘connection of heart’ between INLD, SAD as Chautalas and Badals maintain close ties over decades

“I also made it a point to tell the people of Haryana that the INLD and the SAD were not only political allies but represented the “sanjh (association)” between the people of Punjab and Haryana. Also announced the SAD’s support to the INLD and appealed to the Akali Dal cadre to ensure the victory of INLD candidates in their respective constituencies,” he said, adding, “This is not just an alliance but a connection of heart.”

Friendship since the time of undivided Punjab

The friendship between SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal and INLD founder Chaudhary Devi Lal, which their families continue to share, can be traced back to the time of undivided Punjab. Devi Lal, who died in 2001, was 12 years older than Badal senior. After his death, the close ties were maintained by Devi Lal’s son and former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, his sons and their families. Om Parkash has two sons, Abhay Chautala and Ajay Chautala.

Chaudhary Devi Lal, the former chief minister of Haryana, had founded Bhartiya Lok Dal in the mid-1970s and by 1996 rebranded it as the Indian National Lok Dal( INLD). In December 2018, a split in the INLD saw the formation of the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) by Ajay Chautala’s son Dushyant Chautala even as Abhay Chautala continued to run the parent party along with Om Prakash Chautala.

Months after the JJP was formed in December 2018, the SAD patriarch had in August 2019 made a public appeal to Ajay and Abhay to get united again.

Though the Badals’ native village of Badal in Punjab’s Muktsar and the Chautala village in Haryana’s Sirsa are about 47 km apart, villagers on both sides know of the bond between the families.

“Though the entire Chautala family has close ties with the Badals and they attend functions at each other’s houses, the SAD has political alliance only with the INLD, the party floated by Chaudhary Devi Lal,” said Balwinder Singh Bhunder, senior SAD leader who manages the party’s Haryana affairs.

Senior Badal’s campaign for INLD

In fact, the ties between the INLD and SAD have been so strong that in 2014, when Om Prakash Chautala and his son Ajay Chautala were in jail in connection with the teachers’ recruitment scam, the senior Badal campaigned for INLD candidates, especially Ajay’s son Dushyant Chautala in Hisar and Charanjit Singh Rori in Sirsa, and the party won both seats despite SAD’s prevalent alliance with the BJP in Punjab. Even in 2019, the SAD supported the INLD in Haryana while it was in alliance with the BJP in the state.

On March 10 last year, Parkash Badal attended the wedding of Ajay Chautala’s son Digvijay in Sirsa in what was probably his last public appearance before his death a month later, on April 25.

After his demise in 2001, Chaudhary Devi Lal’s life-size statue was installed by the senior Badal in Punjab’s Killianwali village. And in December 2023, Dushyant Chautala, the then deputy chief minister of Haryana, got a life-size figure of Parkash Singh Badal installed alongside Devi Lal’s statue, stating, “The statues of Chaudhary Devi Lal and Parkash Singh Badal symbolise the brotherhood of Punjab and Haryana.”

At present, the INLD has only one seat in the Haryana Assembly, that of Abhay Chautala in Ellenabad. After having won from the constituency in 2019, Abhay resigned in January 2021 in solidarity with the farmers’ protests against the Union government’s controversial agricultural laws. However, in November 2021 he won the bypoll much before the farm laws were taken back.

In Punjab, the SAD currently has only three seats. Both the SAD and INLD have been stressing that they are the regional parties and represent the local people in Punjab and Haryana, respectively, and hence the masses must choose them over the parties run from Delhi.

Addressing voters in Kurukshetra on Wednesday, Sukhbir Badal warned people not to vote for the BJP, AAP or Congress but he did not say anything against the JJP. Nevertheless, he reiterated, “The INLD is the only regional party of Haryana which talks about kisan and mazdoor. Today, farmers are getting MSP on wheat and paddy. This was all the effort of Chaudhary Devi Lal and Badal senior. Both parties and their leaders have always raised issues of the state and have taken care of its interests unlike parties that take orders from the Delhi High Command.”

Asked if the SAD will hold more such campaigns in Haryana, Bhunder said, “Of course, the Shiromani Akali Dal’s Haryana wing is actively supporting the INLD.”

This election is the first one in which the SAD has lent support to the INLD after dropping ties with the saffron party.

On Wednesday, Abhay Chautala said, “I filed my nomination papers for the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat and my brother and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal was with me. My fight is only for farmers and farm labourers and I will continue doing that till my last breath. Will never switch to the BJP.”

Even in 2022, INLD patron Om Prakash Chautala had campaigned for the senior Badal in Lambi. Though Akali Dal has announced that it will campaign for INLD candidates in Haryana in the current Lok Sabha elections, it is not yet clear if INLD will do the same for SAD candidates in Punjab.