Badals and Chautalas: More than an alliance, connection of hearts

On Wednesday, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal was in Kurukshetra when INLD general secretary Abhay Singh Chautala filed his nomination papers.

Taking to X, Sukhbir wrote, “…congratulated Abhay Bhaisahab at the huge turnout in his favour besides urging people to strengthen INLD, which represents their regional aspirations the best.”

“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.”

The friendship between SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal and INLD founder Chaudhary Devi Lal, which their families continue to share, can betraced back to the time of undivided Punjab. Devi Lal, who died in 2001, was 12 years older to Badal. 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. Devi Lal, a 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), led by Ajay’s son Dushyant Chautala while Abhay continued to run the parent party along with OP Chautala.

Months after the JJP was formed in December 2018, the SAD patriarch had in August2019 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. In 2014, when OP Chautala and Ajay were in jail after being convicted in the teachers’ recruitment scam, the senior Badal campaigned for INLD candidates, especially Dushyant in Hisar and Charanjit Singh Rori in Sirsa. INLD won both seats despite. The SAD campaigned for INLD in Haryana despite being in alliance with the BJP in Punjab.

In 2019 too, the SAD supported the INLD in Haryana.

On March 10 last year, Badal senior attended the wedding of Ajay’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, Devi Lal’s life-size statue was installed by the senior Badal in Punjab’s Killianwali village. And in December 2023, Dushyant, the then deputy chief minister of Haryana, got a life-size figure of Badal senior installed alongside Devi Lal’s statue, stating that the two “symbolise the brotherhood of Punjab and Haryana.”

At present, the INLD has only one seat in the Haryana Assembly, that of Abhay from Ellenabad. After having won from the constituency in 2019, Abhay resigned in January 2021 in solidarity with the farmers’ protests against the now-repealed agri laws. In November 2021 he won the bypoll from the seat.

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 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 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 said, “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, OP 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.