Gurugram: In 2018, the clan of Chaudhary Devi Lal saw a split that led to the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), a major regional party in Haryana, tottering in the wake of Dushyant Chautala floating the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP).
A little over five years now, the JJP led by Devi Lal’s great grandson Dushyant Chautala and the INLD of grandson Abhay Chautala are caught at crossroads — together, the two parties that lay claim on the former deputy prime minister’s political legacy managed just 2.61 percent of voter share in the Lok Sabha elections.
The INLD contested 7 seats and ended up with 1.84 percent vote share, and the JJP that contested all 10 seats had 0.87 percent vote share. Both the parties failed to open its account, with the Congress and the BJP taking five seats each.
Do the Lok Sabha results indicate the end of former deputy PM Devi Lal’s dynasty that has been a leading political force ever since Haryana came into being in 1966?
“I don’t see any revival of Chaudhary Devi Lal’s dynasty from this point. Rather, it’s a question of survival, particularly for the INLD. I will have to see whether the INLD can keep its recognition as a political party intact,” said Kamal Veer Singh, Devi Lal’s nephew and his officer on special duty (OSD) from 1987 to 1989 when the late leader was the chief minister.
Popularly known as K.V. Singh in political circles, Singh didn’t get along with Devi Lal’s eldest son Om Prakash Chautala and he eventually joined the Congress. He went on to contest from Dabwali twice, albeit unsuccessfully, in 2009 and 2014.
In 2019, the Congress fielded Singh’s son Amit Sihag who defeated Aditya Devilal, son of Devi Lal’s youngest son Jagdish Chander, in Dabwali.
“The assembly polls will be a question of survival for the INLD. If the party doesn’t get enough percentage of votes as prescribed under the EC norms, it will lose its election symbol, spectacles. If that happens, it will be a great disgrace for the party to lose an election symbol it has held since Chaudhary Devi Lal’s times,” Singh told ThePrint.
He said that it was precisely for this reason that the INLD made an emotional appeal in Sirsa, the home district of the Chautalas, to give at least one vote to the family so that the party could save its symbol.
Singh was referring to the rules prescribed under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968. In the last three elections — the Lok Sabha and the assembly polls in 2019, and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the INLD has been unable to meet the requirements putting itself in danger of losing its status as a state party.
The Haryana election is unlikely to bring any hope for the JJP as people were angry with Dushyant for having “betrayed” their faith by aligning with the BJP after winning 10 seats against the ruling party in 2019, he added.
“A majority of JJP leaders have also left the party. Only if the party comes with new faces in 2029 and wins people’s hearts that JJP can think of any revival,” Singh told ThePrint.
Replying to a question by reporters in this regard at Yamunagar on Monday, Abhay Chautala, however, said there was no threat to his party or its symbol. “The symbol once issued is never revoked unless surrendered by the party,” he said.
Six-time MLA Sampat Singh, who worked as a political secretary to Devi Lal when he was CM from 1977 to 1979, also felt that the dynasty’s revival was unlikely.
“Devi Lal’s legacy will continue because the former deputy PM was a tall and large-hearted leader. His disciples are successful in politics cutting across party lines — Congress state chief Udai Bhan, Hisar MP Jai Parkash, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh MP Dharambir Singh, Congress MLA from Beri Raghubir Kadiyan, former MLAs Anand Singh Dangi and Ashok Arora. But so far as his dynasty is concerned, I don’t think there is any chance of revival,” he told ThePrint.
Sampat Singh had also served as home minister under Devi Lal’s government from 1987 to 1989, and as finance minister under O.P.Chautala from 2000 to 2005,
The Devi Lal clan’s members are themselves to blame for the situation they find themselves in, he said.
“As more members of Devi Lal’s family entered electoral politics, the INLD increasingly transformed into a family enterprise rather than a political party. Devi Lal himself opposed this trend and always discouraged his family members from interfering in party affairs. This was why he succeeded in making the INLD (and its previous iterations) broad-based,” Singh said.
“However, once his family members took over, they began to ignore party leaders and workers, leading to an exodus. Internal power struggles further weakened the party, resulting in the JJP’s formation in 2018. By 2024, both the INLD and the JJP have been rejected by the people.”
Apart from being a three-time Lok Sabha MP and two-time chief minister, Devi Lal was a Rajya Sabha MP at the time of his death in 2001. He had been an MLA on eight occasions. Similarly, O.P.Chautala, his sons, grandsons and daughter-in-law have a total four terms as MP and 15 terms as MLAs.
Devi Lal had four sons – O.P. Chautala, Partap Singh Chautala, Ranjit Singh and Jagdish Singh. While Ranjit Singh is with the BJP and unsuccessfully contested from Hisar, the control over Devi Lal’s political party remained with O.P. Chautala.
His two sons Ajay and Abhay Chautala separated in December 2018 and they head JJP and INLD, respectively. Dushyant, Digvijay (Ajay Chautala’s sons) as well as Abhay’s sons Karan and Arjun Chautala are active in politics.
INLD secretary general Abhay Singh Chautala, however, stated that the issues and factors in the general and state elections were different, and that the upcoming assembly election will be contested on entirely different issues.
“The 2024 Parliamentary election was contested between BJP and the INDIA bloc. There were people who voted for Modi and there were others who wanted to defeat Modi and hence voted for INDIA bloc… This time, people will vote on issues concerning the state and hence the INLD will perform very well,” he said, adding that the party has already started district-level meetings from Monday.
Talking about the JJP’s performance, the INLD leader remarked the party that boasted of getting 15 percent vote share in the 2019 assembly polls was reduced to less than 1 percent in this election.
Randhir Jhanjhra, office secretary of the JJP in Chandigarh, said that the party has dissolved all its bodies and the appointment of new office bearers will start in July. He said that the party would perform well to win a few seats this time and has set a target of forming its government in 2029.
Haryana will go to polls in October. Currently, the JJP has 10 MLAs in the Haryana assembly, while Abhay Singh Chautala is the lone INLD representative in the House.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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