brass rallies behind Abhay, 13 MLAs attend meet
CHANDIGARH : Holding a parallel show in Chandigarh, senior INLD leader and leader of opposition in the Haryana assembly Abhay Chautala on Saturday said all claims of his elder brother Ajay Chautala had been exposed as he “failed to demonstrate his strength” during the Jind event.
“Claims were being made that most of the MLAs were with them. Only three MLAs were there, while 15 MLAs openly supported us,” Abhay said after the state executive meeting at Jat Bhawan in Sector 19 here.
He said the party executive, attended by MLAs, district presidents and other office bearers, has passed a resolution expressing faith in the leadership of Om Prakash Chautala.
Hitting out at his brother, Abhay said those who staked claim over the party have themselves left. “Unke sab daave jhooth ka pulinda sabit hue hain (All their claims have turned out to be a bunch of lies)’’, he said. Abhay said their so-called supporters would also vanish by December 9 when they planned to float a new outfit.
“Their attempts failed as 95% of the state executive was present in Chandigarh. Of the remaining 5%, I think only 2% may have gone with them,” he said.
Of the 18 party MLAs, 13 were present at the Abhay’s event. Along with Sirsa MP Charanjit Singh Rori and Rajya Sabha member Ram Kumar Kashyap, 19 of 22 district chiefs and all 90 ‘halqa’ presidents attended the power show.
Two party MLAs, Nagender Bhadana and Ram Chander Kamboj, had sent in written communication, expressing their inability to come.
Abhay predicted that members of the rival group will now try to find a party they can join. “They will try to do some ‘jugaad’. Forming and running a party is not everybody’s cup of tea,” Abhay said. On a possible compromise between the two brothers, he said the two young leaders should have apologised over the “hooliganism” at the rally.
“We were expecting Ajay to convince his sons and ask them to seek an apology from their grandfather. But he also went along with them,” he said. They also tried to misguide people that party supremo’s signature on letters expelling them was forged, he added.
To a question if the exit of Ajay and his family members would cause any dent to INLD, Abhay sharply replied in negative and held that the INLD would grow stronger now.
He said that the party along with ally Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) would start “Adhikar Yatra” from Kurukshetra from December 1 and hold a rally in February.