Battle for Kurukshetra heats up as INLD’s Abhay Chautala throws hat in the ring

The Aam Aadmi Party has already fielded its state unit chief Sushil Gupta from Kurukshetra in the arrangement that it finalised with the Congress for the Lok Sabha elections. The newly installed Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini is the MP from Kurukshetra — a district that is being nurtured and developed by the BJP-led state dispensation as a spiritual hub. The Lok Sabha constituency covers entire Kurukshetra and Kaithal districts and parts of Yamunanagar district of Haryana. Both Kurukshetra and Kaithal share border with Punjab, a state where the AAP is in power.

Kurukshetra Lok Sabha constituency comprises nine Assembly segments. Of these, BJP had won four including Thanesar (Subhash Sudha), Pehowa (Sandeep Singh), Kalayat (Kamlesh Dhanda) and Kaithal (Leela Ram) in 2019 Assembly polls. BJP’s ally JJP had won two seats — Shahbad (Ram Karan) and Guhla (Ishwar Singh). Pundri is represented by Randhir Singh Gollen who contested as Independent and subsequently supported BJP, while Congress had won the remaining two seats – Radaur (Bishan Lal Saini) and Ladwa (Mewa Singh).

As per 2011 Census, 17.47 per cent population of Kurukshetra speak Punjabi. Members of the Scheduled Castes comprise over 22 per cent of the total population of the district.

By fielding Abhay from Kurukshetra, the INLD has sought to give a message to its cadres that the party was taking the Lok Sabha polls very seriously. Abhay had earlier said that his party will contest all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Relegated to the sidelines in state’s political scene, for INLD, a win in the Lok Sabha polls may come as a much-needed shot in arm ahead of the Assembly elections that are scheduled later this year.

The INLD had suffered a vertical split in 2018 when Abhay’s brother Ajay Chautala and latter’s son Dushyant Chautala and Digvijay Chautala formed a new political outfit — the Jannayak Janta Party — after they were expelled for anti-party activities. Since then, the INLD has been facing setbacks with party winning only from Ellenabad in October 2019 Assembly elections. In the 2019 parliamentary polls, INLD had fielded Abhay’s son Arjun Singh Chautala from Kurukshetra, but he could secure only 60,679 votes — less than five per cent of the total polled. Arjun ended up at the fifth place in the election that was won by BJP’s Saini who had secured 6.88 lakh votes (56.12%) against his nearest rival, Congress’s Nirmal Singh.

In 2022, in the bypolls to Adampur Assembly seat, INLD’s Kurda Ram Numbardar could secure just 5,248 votes (3.99%). BJP’s Bhavya Bishnoi won the bypoll by securing 67,492 (51.32%) votes. Bishnoi is the son of Kuldeep Bishnoi, who had vacated the seat after quitting the Congress to join the BJP earlier that year.

In November 2022, however, the INLD performed well in zila parishad polls in Sirsa district where it won 10 of the 24 seats. Later, Abhay’s son Karan Chautala was elected chairman of the Sirsa zila parishad while securing 12 of the 19 votes polled by the zila parishad members.

Keen on reviving the party, Abhay in February last year had embarked on a 219-day-long padyatra covering all 90 Assembly constituencies. The padyatra concluded on September 25 — which also happens to be the birth anniversary of Abhay’s grandfather and former deputy prime minister Devi Lal. That day the party held a rally in Kurukshetra.

Abhay has been insisting that the revival of INLD is certain. “We have seen ups and downs many times in our political journey. The BJP was responsible for the split in the INLD, which has angered the people. Our efforts to raise the issues of common man will be instrumental in our revival,” Abhay Chautala had told The Indian Express earlier.