Haryana Congress future, Varun Chaudhary looks to leave his mark in Parliament

A law graduate from Delhi University, Varun runs a business of petrol pumps and godowns. As per his Lok Sabha election affidavit, he has assets worth over Rs 25.9 crore.

In the Lok Sabha polls, Chaudhary got 49.28% of the total votes polled while the BJP’s Banto Kataria got 45.64% and lost by just over 49,000 votes. In 2014 and 2019, Banto’s husband Rattan Lal Kataria had won Ambala for the BJP. Rattan Lal died on May 18, 2023.

Marking one year of Rattan Lal’s death anniversary in May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed a huge rally while campaigning for Banto in Ambala. Sensing a likely sympathy factor could be at play, Congress Legislative Party leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda recommended Chaudhary as the party’s candidate.

Having been a member of the party since 2004 and served as the general secretary of Haryana Youth Congress, Chaudhary had contested his first electoral battle from the SC-reserved Mulana Assembly seat — one of the nine Assembly segments that make up the Ambala Lok Sabha constituency and once his family’s stronghold — in 2014 but finished a distant third. In 2019, he won the seat with a thin margin of 1,688 votes, defeating the BJP’s Rajbir Singh.

In the Assembly, Chaudhary distinguished himself. In March 2021, Chaudhary and the BJP’s Nangal Chaudhry MLA Abhe Singh Yadav were awarded the Best Legislator Award for 2020-’21 for their “overall outstanding contribution to the Assembly”. The selection criteria for this award include attendance in the House, behaviour on floor of the House, contribution of the member in carrying out development works for the constituency, and contribution to various House Committees.

The Mulana Assembly seat had been a bastion of Chaudhary’s family. It was first won in 1972 by his father Phool Chand Mullana, who won again in 1982 as an Independent, and in 1991 and 2005 as a Congress candidate. Phool Chand was also the Haryana Congress president from 2007 to 2014 and served as a Cabinet Minister in Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s government. Phool Chand held the portfolios of Revenue, Public Works Department, Education, Forest and Technical Education. He was also the chairman of the Haryana State Scheduled Caste Commission and was awarded the Haryana Ratan in 2005 for his contributions in politics and social welfare.

“The scale of the Lok Sabha is very different from the Vidhan Sabha. It is more grand. Sitting in the 90-member Haryana Vidhan Sabha and 543-member Parliament are very different. But the job is the same. Being a public representative, it is my duty to raise the issues of my constituents, my state and the entire nation. As an MLA, I tried to do my best in the House vis-a-vis legislative business. I proposed a lot of amendments to Bills and around six of them were amended after my intervention. Similarly, I will try to give my best in the Lok Sabha,” Chaudhary said.

He added, “It struck me when I first sat in Parliament that it is challenging to find a space for yourself to compete for time. For instance, like in the Vidhan Sabha, 20 questions are discussed during the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha too. But unlike in the Vidhan Sabha, where 20 Questions are selected from 90 members, here the same is done from 543 members. There is a huge difference. We have to compete for time. It will be a good learning experience. But having been a part of the Vidhan Sabha definitely helps.”