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Journalism of Courage
The old adage, “United we stand, divided we fall”, seems to have come true for Chautalas – one of Haryana’s most politically influential families – in the wake of a bitter clan feud resulting in the split of their party, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), and the formation of a breakaway outfit, Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), in December 2018.
The INLD is led by 89-year-old Om Prakash Chautala and his son Abhay Chautala, while the JJP is led by Om Prakash’s elder son Ajay Chautala and his son Dushyant Chautala, former Haryana deputy chief minister.
The INLD was founded by former Deputy Prime Minister and Jat stalwart late Devi Lal, who had been one of the tallest farmer leaders in north India. Both the INLD and the JJP have struggled to live up to his political legacy amid the rise of the BJP and the resurgence of the Congress in Haryana, which is now headed for the Assembly polls on October 1.
INLD patriarch and Devi Lal’s son Om Prakash, a seven-time MLA, has been the Haryana CM five times. Abhay is a four-term MLA, while Ajay is a three-time MLA (once in Haryana, twice in Rajasthan) and former member of both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
The INLD’s electoral fortunes have continued to slide since its split, even as both the party and the JJP have continued to fight also over their respective claims on Devi Lal’s legacy.
In October 2019 Assembly polls, the INLD and the JJP contested separately. The INLD could then win just one seat, Ellenabad, won by Abhay, and got 2.44% votes after contesting 81 seats out of the state’s 90. The JJP however bagged 10 seats out of 87 seats it contested while garnering a 14.80% vote share.
With the 2019 polls throwing up a hung Assembly and the incumbent BJP winning 40 seats, six short of a simple majority, as against the Congress’s 31, JJP leader Dushyant emerged as a “kingmaker”. In lieu of the JJP’s support to the BJP-led government, Dushyant was inducted as the Deputy CM in the Manohar Lal Khattar Cabinet.
However, springing a surprise in March this year ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP snapped its ties with the JJP and replaced Khattar with party leader Nayab Singh Saini as the CM.
Out of power, the JJP has since been on a downward spiral. Except three MLAs – including Dushyant himself (Uchana Kalan seat), his mother Naina Chautala (Bhadra) and Amarjeet Dhanda (Julana) – the remaining ones have deserted the party. These include five legislators – Ram Kumar Gautam (Narnaund), Anoop Dhanak (Uklana), Devender Babli (Tohana), Ram Karan Kala (Shahbad) and Ishwar Singh (Guhla) – who have officially quit the party. They are set to join either the BJP or the Congress.
Also, the JJP has issued notices to two MLAs – Jogi Ram Sihag (Barwala) and Ram Niwas Surjakhera (Narwana) – for their alleged ant-party activities. They are likely to join the BJP. Meanwhile, state JJP president Nishan Singh has quit the party and joined the Congress.
Dushyant claims to remain unfazed by these desertions. “JJP is Chaudhary Devi Lal’s nursery. People come here, get trained, occupy positions and then leave at the time of struggle,” he says. “Out of seven (MLAs) who have left, six had already distanced themselves from the party during Lok Sabha polls. Submitting their resignations were merely a formality. There are still 42 days to go before the Assembly polls and JJP will again emerge as a kingmaker.”
The last time when the Chautala clan contested unitedly under the aegis of the INLD and made an impact in the Haryana polls was in 2009, when the party got 31 seats with 25.79% vote share. Om Prakash was then the Leader of Opposition (LoP), while the Congress that won 40 seats formed the government again with the support of Independent MLAs. The BJP could then win just 4 seats.
In 2014, when the BJP stormed to power at the Centre under Narendra Modi’s leadership, the party created history in Haryana too, winning 47 seats to form its first government in the state with absolute majority.
In the 2014 state polls too, the Chautala clan fought unitedly with the INLD winning 19 seats with 24.1% vote share. The Congress won only 15 seats. In absence of Om Prakash, who was jailed after his conviction in the JBT teachers recruitment scam, Abhay was named the LoP.
During Dushyant’s nearly four-and-a-half-year stint as the Deputy CM, the JJP hoped that it would be able to expand its support base in the state, but it did not happen. He faced heat from a section of Haryana people and his own party leaders and MLAs during the year-long farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s three controversial farm laws. The JJP also tried to make a foray in Rajasthan in November 2023 Assembly polls, fielding 19 candidates, all of whom lost their security deposits.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the JJP contested Haryana’s all 10 seats, while the INLD fought from seven of them. Both the parties drew a blank, with the BJP and the Congress winning five seats each. Neither the JJP nor the INLD led in any Assembly segment in the state. In the Jat-dominated Hisar seat,
the Congress’s Jai Prakash, once a Devi Lal’s protege, defeated three members of the Chautala clan – Devi Lal’s son Ranjit Singh (BJP) and Om Prakash’s daughters-in-law Sunaina Chautala (INLD) and Naina Chautala (JJP).
Although several loyalists of the Chautala clan still believe that if both the INLD and the JJP merge and contest the polls as a united force it could again make a comeback in state politics. But, the chances of any such scenario emerging seem remote at this stage, given their bad blood. In an X post on Sunday, Abhay stated: “The Kingbreaker of Haryana… more like Trustbreaker! Dushyant’s journey from breaking the trust of his grandfather & farmers and now breaking the faith of his own MLAs is one for the history books. Will he ever stop?”
