Accused of promoting his family, Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala has decided to turn a new leaf in the ensuing Assembly polls by not fielding his younger son and sitting MLA, Abhay. The elder son, Ajay, is a member of the Rajya Sabha. Haryana goes to the polls exactly a month from now but Chautala says the ‘‘anti-poor and anti-farmer’’ image of the Congress will return him to power and the BJP will be wiped out from his state. Talking to The Indian Express, Chautala said Haryana elections will be a straight fight between the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Congress. ‘‘The INLD suffered in the May Lok Sabha elections due to the ant-incumbency wave against the NDA. It is the Congress that will face the anti-incumbency due to their anti-farmer policies,’’ he said. Putting up a brave face against allegations of corruption against him, the Haryana strongman said assets of his sons are available in the affidavit filed to the Election Commission during the Lok Sabha polls. ‘‘The corruption charge is baseless as the money is part of the Chaudhary Devi Lal trust, which is like a number of trusts of the Nehru-Gandhi family.nobody can say I have given jobs to my people or arbitrarily transferred people during my present tenure,’’ Chautala said. He identified Punjab’s unilateral abrogation of the river accord, SYL canal and anti-farmer stance of the Congress-led UPA Government as his main poll planks. ‘‘The Congress has shown its true face.the farmer’s production is down with hardly a hike in the minimum support prices.the poor are unhappy as prices of kerosene, diesel and petrol have gone up,’’ Chautala said. The CM’s pet issue, of course, is the SYL issue, for which he blames Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. ‘‘How can Sonia not be party to the SYL canal decision.It was a decision of the Punjab Assembly and the Punjab CM was parked in Delhi to meet the Congress president,’’ he said. According to him, the Congress has no political weapon to target him other than character assassination. ‘‘They have used these tactics earlier against P.K. Dhumal and P.S. Badal but it will not help as I will get absolute majority,’’ he claimed. While the Congress may be his main enemy, Chautala, a professed A.B. Vajpayee fan, is peeved with the BJP leadership. He is angry at a BJP office bearer’s statement that the party would not touch INLD ‘‘with a barge pole’’. The Chief Minister indicated the way the BJP was going, it would end up with the 1984 figure in Parliament.
