Chautala bahu seeks to become ‘Haryana’s daughter’
'My husband would have done much more but I too will try to nurture the constituency as he would have wished'
Naina Chautala with voters in Dabwali. Source: Express
Her husband serving a 10-year jail term, Naina Chautala has stepped into a role unfamiliar for women in the family. With folded hands, the family’s first woman politician is presenting herself before Dabwali’s voters as a daughter-in-law of the family who would like to be a daughter of the state.
But she appears also to see herself as something of a stopgap arrangement. “I am contesting in unusual circumstances. If my husband is released tomorrow and he wants to come back from here, I will vacate the seat for him. After all, I am fighting for him,” she tells The Indian Express from the cosntituency, last represented by her husband, Ajay Chautala.
Naina, 48, describes what she has been telling voters: “I came here as a daughter-in-law and served the family within my home. But these are not usual times. My husband is in jail, so is my father-in -law. The state framed them in a false case. Justice will be done but we cannot wait until then. I am seeking your mandate for the family. I will serve as a daughter of the state.”
She tells The Indian Express: “I belong to a political family and know how one pushes a public cause. I deserve a chance.”
In fact, Naina had campaigned during the last Lok Sabha elections for her son Dushyant, who won from Hisar. She is one of three members of the Chautala family seeking to retain its bastions. The last polls had seen O P Chautala elected from Uchana Kalan where he defeated Birender Singh, Ajay from Dabwali and O P Chautala’s younger son Abhay from Ellenabad. This election has Abhay back from his constituency and Dushyant from Uchana Kalan, while Naina will contest against Birender’s wife in Dabwali.
Much of Naina’s conversation centres around Ajay. “My husband would have done much more but I too will try to nurture the constituency as he would have wished.”
Naina hails from the village of Darauli in Adampur, the Lok Sabha constituency that is home to HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi. A graduate, Naina says that public life should come easy to her after having spent 14 years in a hostel. “I was head girl of the hostel and am used to public dealings. It was because of the family tradition that I kept away from public life but now that it is the need of the hour, I will do my job.”
Two other daughters-in-law contesting include Kiran Choudhry of the Bansi Lal family from Tosham and Renuka Bishnoi of the Bhajan Lal clan from Hansi. Neither is a first-timer.
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