Hisar: It’s family versus family versus family

Lok Sabha Elections 2019 | Polling schedule, results date, constituency-wise results, how to check live counting

Kuldip is the son of Dushyant’s great-grandfather’s bête noire, Bhajan Lal, who toppled Devi Lal as chief minister in 1979, introducing the political phenomenon of defections then known as “Aaya Ram and Gaya Ram”.

At 26, Dushyant became the youngest Lok Sabha MP in 2014.

Bhavya Bishnoi

This time the youngest candidate from Hisar is Bhajan Lal’s foreign-educated 26-year old grandson Bhavya Bishnoi, now contesting on a Congress ticket, who wants to avenge his father Kuldip’s defeat. Bhavya has brought out a thick glossy manifesto only for Hisar, probably the first of its kind. He claims he has been visiting the region regularly for weddings and funerals, and touring the constituency for the last two years.

A Dushyant admirer in the town, Tushar Sharma, was skeptical of Bhavya’s knowledge of the constituency and said, “Bhavya probably does not even know names of all the villages to which Dushyant has sent water tankers.”

There is a third candidate in the fray, adding a twist to the tale. The BJP’s Brijendra Singh also has a distinguished political lineage. His father is Steel Minister Birender Singh, who is the grandson of Sir Chhotu Ram, a highly educated Jat of his day, who in the 1920s was a social reformer and educationist in united Punjab.

Brijendra Singh

Brijendra, 46, an IAS officer for 21 years, had ranked ninth in the civil services examination and studied at St Stephen’s College, JNU and King’s College, London. He resigned from civil services to enter politics even as his father offered to give up his ministry and Rajya Sabha membership to uphold the BJP’s non-dynastic principles. Birender’s punchline at electoral meetings is, “This is my son. He has sacrificed his Sarkari job to serve you. Now I leave it to you.”

The polished Brijendra has been asserting that he is not at a disadvantage in politics, having grown up in a political family. “Being a soft Jat doesn’t make you less of a Jat,” he points out, “remember education always helps”.

About Dushyant, he says, “We know how to deal with them.” He was referring to the fact that his father defeated Devi Lal in the same constituency in 1984 and his mother Premlata Singh defeated Dushyant in the Assembly election of Uchana in Hisar parliamentary constituency in 2014, within six months of Dushyant’s parliamentary victory.

Dushyant Chautala

For Dushyant, the stakes in this election are high. It will decide who inherits the legacy of Devi Lal, known affectionately as Haryana’s ‘Tau’. After Devi Lal’s son and former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala was sentenced and jailed along with his elder son Ajay, a bitter fight broke out between Chautala’s younger son Abhay and Ajay’s children, Dushyant and Digvijay, over control of the INLD.

Abhay as party president seemed to have the upper hand as the party organisation was with him and his father backed him. But Dushyant and Digvijay, members of the party’s youth wing, formed a new party, JJP, last year. In the recent Jind Assembly bypoll, Dushyant’s party came second behind the BJP’s winning candidate. They were followed by the Congress and INLD. Dushyant has to now campaign not just for himself but for all other candidates from his party. “We are a young party,” he says, pointing out that six out 10 candidates of JJP-AAP alliance are below the age of 40. “Legacy,” he says, “cannot be inherited, it has to be won.”