The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), the principal opposition party in Haryana, appears to be staring at an imminent split after the expulsion of its senior leader Ajay Chautala by party’s national president and former four-time chief minister Om Prakash Chautala.
The raging feud between Chautala’s two sons – Ajay and Abhay Chautala – over the control of the party has finally ended in the expulsion of Ajay, within a fortnight of the expulsion of his two sons – Hisar MP Dushyant and Indian National Students’ Organisation (INSO) – on the charges of hooliganism at party’s October 7 rally at Gohana.
In retaliation, Ajay had called a meeting of INLD leaders and workers at Jind on November 17, for which he has been shown the door by the party supremo.
All doors of reconciliation between the two camps now appear to be closed with the consistent aggressive posture of OP Chautala and defiant reaction by Ajay and his family members, who are alleging that “some people are trying to hijack the party.”
Chautala Senior has made it clear to the party rank and file by the prompt action against Ajay that he and the party stand by the side of his younger son Abhay, who is leader of opposition in Haryana assembly.
Notably, Abhay is pulling the strings of the party in the absence of OP Chautala and Ajay, who are currently serving a ten-year sentence in Delhi’s Tihar jail in the JBT teachers’ recruitment scam. Ajay is currently out on a two-week parole from jail.
The quick action by the party, political observers feel, also checkmates Ajay and his family members’ move to seek time to muster popular support by holding rallies across the state
Ajay has been found guilty of violating the party discipline and weakening its unity and integrity, party state president Ashok Arora said.
Hence, Chautala showed no hesitation in choosing the party over a senior member of his family, he added.
The sequence of events leading to the expulsion of Ajay and his two sons, observers feel, will also adversely affect the party’s prospects in the coming assembly elections, which appeared bright before the family feud came to the fore, especially after its alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Besides his two sons, Ajay’s wife Naina Chautala is also politicvally active and is INLD MLA from Dabwali. Ajay himself has been MP twice and MLA from Dabwali before getting convicted in the JBT recruitment case along with his father in 2013.
The INLD will have to reckon with the increasing grass-root support for Ajay’s family as both his sons are rapidly becoming popular among youth in the state. His wife Naina has also struck a chord among the women folk in the otherwise patriarchal state.
Meawhile, the rift in the party, which is now out in open, would mean plethora of problems for both the brothers.
While Abhay claims to have had the backing of his father and party chief Chautala, state INLD president Ashok Arora, most of its 19 MLAs and other office-bearers, Ajay’s camp can sew political tie-up in the days to come or at least form a separate political outfit that will dent the support base of the parent party.
This would also adversely affect the INLD’s image as a party with a strong cadre at a time when the Congress is plagued with intense factionalism and the ruling BJP is facing anti-incumbency for its poor performance on several fronts.
First Published: Nov 16, 2018 16:25 IST
Source: HindustanTimes