At Sonepat rally, Chautala bats for Mayawati as PM
(SONEPAT): Indian National Lok Dal president Om Prakash Chautala on Sunday said his party will work towards bringing the opposition parties together to make BSP supremo Mayawati the next prime minister after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Out on a two-week parole, the former Haryana chief minister was addressing a rally organised here to mark the 105th birth anniversary of senior INLD leader and his father Devi Lal. Om Prakash Chautala is serving a 10-year jail term in a teachers’ recruitment scam.
“..we will work towards uniting the Opposition so that Mayawati becomes the next Prime Minister,” he told the gathering.
Om Prakash Chautala said Lal had a dream that the countrymen should have enough food, shelter, good education and access to affordable health.
“Today, he is not amongst us but we have to follow his ideals and work towards realising his dreams,” he said.
GOHANA(SONEPAT): The infighting in the Chautala family, which leads the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), came to the fore on Sunday when a group of party workers started hooting while senior leader Abhay Chautala came to address the rally organised here to mark the 105th birth anniversary of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal.
Several youngsters carrying posters of INLD MP and Abhay’s nephew Dushyant Chautala continued chanting slogans in favour of the latter during the 5-minute speech of Abhay Chautala, leader of opposition in Haryana assembly. They also waived flags of Indian National Student Organisation (INSO) while urging the party leadership to declare Dushyant as party’s chief ministerial candidate for the 2019 assembly elections in the state.
Though Abhay made repeated appeals to the shouting brigade of party activists to maintain discipline, they continued chanting pro-Dushyant slogans.
Even Dushayant, while standing with Abhay at the dais, requested them with folded hands to maintain calm, but they did not budge until Abhay ended his speech.
CHAUTALA WARNS ‘ERRANT’ WORKERS
The incident forced INLD supremo and former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala to admonish the “errant” party workers during his address. Chautala who looked very annoyed at the incessant sloganshouting handed out a strong rebuke saying: “Those who indulge in such public display of slogan-shouting are trying to vitiate the atmosphere. Either they should mend their ways or we will show them the door before the elections”. He added, “I have a very good memory and I will not forget the people who are playing spoilsport here.”
The development assumes significance in the wake of reports that young INLD workers , especially followers of Dushyant , are agitated as the Hisar MP was not allowed to speak during a meeting of the party executive in Gurgaon recently.
INLD BLAMES CONG
However, INLD spokesperson Praveen Attrey condemned the hooting and alleged that the protesters were paid workers of the Congress, which was worried over Abhay’s “increasing popularity”.
ABHAY CHAUTALA FACES HOOTING FROM SUPPORTERS OF HIS MP NEPHEW DUSHYANT, WHO WANT HIM TO BE PROJECTED AS CM FACE