Chautala-led factions in Haryana put up a dismal show

Chautalas' political downfall in Haryana, from split to dismal Lok Sabha election performance, facing challenges from all sides.

The Chautalas, who were a force to reckon with in Haryana politics for decades until a split in the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) led to the formation of the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) in 2018, put up a dismal show in the Lok Sabha election, with all their candidates set to lose their security deposits and two even trailing behind the NOTA (None of the Above) vote count.

Among the prominent losers from the two parties, INLD secretary general and the party’s lone MLA Abhay Chautala was the distant third in Kurukshetra Lok Sabha constituency, as per the latest Election Commission of India figures, with over 78,000 votes, while BJP’s Naveen Jindal polled over 5,42,000 votes. Similarly, former Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala’s mother and JJP candidate Naina Chautala finished fifth with a little over 22,032 votes, just behind her sister-in-law and INLD candidate Sunaina Chautala, who polled 22,303 votes.

Interestingly, the INLD’s Gurgaon Lok Sabha candidate Sorab Khan and JJP’s Faridabad candidate Nalin Hooda were trailing behind the NOTA vote count at the time the edition went to the press. Moreover, the candidates of the Bahujan Samaj Party, which does not have a single MLA in the current Haryana State Assembly, were ahead of INLD and JJP candidates in around six seats.

Before the split, the INLD, however, had won two Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 general election despite the ‘Modi wave’, with its candidates Dushyant Chautala and Charajeet Singh Rori winning from Hisar and Sirsa respectively.

The INLD was hit hard by the conviction of its chief and former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala in the JBT teachers recruitment scam in 2013.

Later, the JJP, formed after a split in the party, lost its core Jat voters to the Congress after it entered into an alliance with the BJP following the 2019 Assembly election and did not support the farmers’ agitation against the now-withdrawn farm laws.

Even after snapping ties with the BJP in March this year, the JJP has continued to face the farmers’ ire. The JJP candidates and leaders were confronted by the State’s farmers and prevented from entering villages to campaign.