10 members of 3 popular Lal clans take poll plunge
While five kin of former CMs Bansi Lal and Bhajan Lal are contesting on Cong tickets, as many from Devi Lal family are in the fray as candidates of different parties
CHANDIGARH/ROHTAK : As many as 10 members of Haryana’s three popular Lal clans — once headed by former chief ministers Bansi Lal, Devi Lal and Bhajan Lal — are in the fray for the Vidhan Sabha elections to be held on October 21.
While three family members of three-time CM and defence minister Bansi Lal and two sons of Bhajan Lal, known for their deep pockets, are contesting as Congress candidates, five members of the divided family of Devi Lal, also former deputy prime minister, are contesting from different political outfits, including the BJP.
Bansi Lal’s daughter in-law Kiran Choudhry is hoping to win for the fourth consecutive time from the family citadel Tosham. Her estranged brother-in-law Ranbir Mahendra, ex-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), is fighting his last electoral battle from Badhra. He had to taste defeat in the 2009 and 2014 assembly polls. Another kin from the clan in the fray is Bansi Lal’s son-in-law and former MLA Somvir Singh Sheoran, who is contesting from Loharu.
Such is the animosity among the three kin of Bansi Lal that Mahendra and Kiran don’t see eye to eye, while for the first time, Somvir is using pictures of Kiran in his poll publicity material.
After Bansi Lal’s son Surender Singh died in a helicopter crash in 2005, the latter’s widow Kiran emerged as the flag-bearer of the family legacy. Though Mahendra had attempted to emerge successor of his father, he never won election after the former CM died.
Also, former CM Bhajan Lal’s sons — ex-deputy chief minister Chander Mohan and his younger brother Kuldeep Bishnoi are contesting from Panchkula and Adampur, the citadel of the family since 1968. Both are contesting as Congress nominees.
THE DIVIDED DEVI LAL FAMILY
All eyes are set on the family members of Devi Lal, especially due to the raging family feud and split in the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). Devi Lal’s grandson Abhay Singh Chautala is seeking third consecutive term from Ellenabad. Abhay’s estranged nephew and former MP Dushyant Chautala, who has floated the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), is contesting from Uchana Kalan in Jind district. He is pitted against former Union steel minister Chaudhary Birender Singh’s wife Prem Lata of the BJP. Dushyant’s mother Naina Chautala will test the political waters in Badhra in Dadri district instead of Dabwali. She is pitted against Bansi Lal’s son Ranbir Mahendra.
In the fray is another grandson of Devi Lal, Aditya Devi Lal, who is fighting from Dabwali seat as a BJP nominee. Devi Lal’s son Ranjit Singh Chautala is contesting as an independent candidate from Rania seat in Sirsa district after the Congress denied him ticket.
DISTANT RELATIVES
Dura Ram, a BJP candidate from Fatehabad, is also related to the Bhajan Lal family. In 2014 assembly polls, he had contested on the ticket of Kuldeep Bishnoi’s then Haryana Janhit Congress, which later merged into the Congress.
The Congress candidate from Dabwali seat, Amit Sihag, a new face and son of KV Singh, an aide of former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, is related to the Devi Lal family. Both the leaders, Devi Lal’s grandson Aditya Devi Lal of the BJP and Amit Sihag of Congress will be crossing swords in the Dabwali segment.