A Chautala back in govt after 15 years, village waits with list of pending works

On Saturday, there was no celebration in the village, and most people told The Sunday Express that they are waiting for Dushyant to arrive.

Panchayat member Amar Singh Sahu said, “Many villagers are happy that after 15 years Chautala village’s name will be in the limelight. Earlier, during Chaudhary Devi Lal and Om Parkash Chautala’s tenure as CMs, officers used to come here and redress our problems. Our work was done in government offices without delay, but they don’t even pick our phone calls now.”

Fellow panchayat member Dharampal Singh said there has been no celebration yet. “So far only Congress supporters have celebrated, as their candidate Amit Sihag won (the village comes under Dabwali constituency).”
Dharampal said discussions on the alliance are going on, especially since JJP sought votes by campaigning against BJP.

Another topic being debated, Sahu said, is the need to break away from INLD: “Dushyant was being offered the deputy CM’s post by INLD itself, but he insisted on being the CM. If he had to become deputy CM, he could have become that by staying in INLD.”

Vinod Kumar, a villager, said, “Although we feel the alliance with BJP was not good, we are happy that JJP will be part of the government. We will get more teeth…get works done.”

Listing out pending work, panchayat member Sahu said, “There is a problem of water shortage; we need a bigger water tank; canal water comes every fortnight, as against every week earlier. There is also the issue of water contamination.”

Interestingly, although Dushyant’s family comes from the village, his party doesn’t seem very popular here. The JJP got only 1,253 votes from Chautala village, finishing a poor fourth. The INLD fared only marginally better with 1,442 votes. At 3,199, BJP received maximum votes in the village, followed by the Congress (3,074 votes).