Seven-month-long Haryana padyatra INLD’s latest bid to make a comeback

Talking to The Indian Express, the party’s lone MLA Abhay Chautala, who will flag off the padyatra that will traverse all 22 districts of Haryana, said, “There is always one leader in a party. People see the leader and if they have faith in him or her, they vote and the party wins. Also, when the opposition becomes faceless, the leader in power continues to reign. When Indira Gandhi ji was ruling, the opposition was completely faceless. There was nobody who could emerge as an alternative. After her demise, Chaudhary Devi Lal ji projected V P Singh as the PM candidate and ushered in a change. Today too, the situation is similar. Narendra Modi ji is continuing unchallenged. Through this padyatra, I’ll carry out my duties and go to the people of my state, listen to their problems and assure them that I shall continue to raise their voices. If they have faith in me, they will vote my party to power.”

“We also have the 2024 general elections in mind. This padyatra shall mainly focus on the failures of this government (the BJP-JJP coalition). Be it rampant corruption, numerous scams, rising unemployment, atrocities on farmers — INLD will take up all such issues during these seven months of our padyatra. We’ll also raise our demand for supply of Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal water to Haryana. Despite the Supreme Court’s verdict, this BJP government has failed to fetch our legitimate share of water for our fields. We’ll continue our fight to ensure we get our due share of the water,” Abhay added.

When asked why none of his party’s candidates, barring him, could make the cut, Abhay said, “Every time we choose a candidate, we ensure that s/he has an image of honesty and integrity, and has the zeal to serve the state’s people. But as I said, it’s always the leader of a party that people identify with, so if they have faith in me, my party’s candidates will also win.”

The INLD has been out of power in Haryana since 2005, when it was defeated by the Congress under Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s leadership. Hooda continued as the CM when the Congress clinched the 2009 Assembly polls. However, in 2014, the BJP came to power with an absolute majority for the first time, and made Manohar Lal Khattar the CM.

In the 2009 polls, the INLD had won 31 seats out of 90 to become the principal Opposition party in the state. Om Prakash Chautala was then the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly. The party slipped to 19 seats in the 2014 polls, against the BJP’s 47, with 15 going to the incumbent Congress. In Chautala’s absence (he was in jail after being convicted in a teachers’ recruitment scam), Abhay became the LoP.

However, ahead of the 2019 Assembly polls, the INLD split in the wake of infighting within the Chautala clan, which led to the emergence of the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), led by Chautala’s grandson, Dushyant Singh Chautala.

The INLD was routed in the 2019 polls, with only Abhay managing to win from Ellenabad.

Although the INLD hopes to make a comeback in 2024, the Haryana political scene has got more crowded. Delhi’s chief minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal had already announced that AAP will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections from Haryana. The AAP has governments in Delhi and Punjab, on either side of Haryana’s border.

The 2019 Haryana polls threw up a hung Assembly that forced the BJP to forge an alliance with the JJP to form the government. This allowed Dushyant Chautala to become the Deputy CM. While the JJP has been attempting to expand its base across the state, especially among the youth, the main Opposition — the Hooda-led Congress — is looking to oust the BJP-JJP from power by riding the perceived two-term “anti-incumbency” against the saffron party. The Congress, however, continues to be plagued with infighting and factionalism.