Dushyant rises as key player within a year of floating JJP
We proved that the real legacy of Chaudhary Devi Lal was with our party, the JJP
NEWDELHI: Long before Dushyant Chautala hit the headlines as the potential kingmaker in Haryana after a hung assembly emerged from the October 21 assembly elections, he was known as an ideal lawmaker.
I n f act, i n 2 0 1 5 , t he t hen 26-year-old was chosen by PRS Legislative Research as one of the best performing MPS, who was making his presence felt although he was a first-timer.
He represented at the time the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which was formed by his great grandfather and late deputy prime minister Devi Lal. His grandfather Om Prakash Chautala was in jail in a corruption case in which his father had also been charged.
Dushyant was busy carving out a different career path.having reached Parliament after defeating another Haryana political heavyweight, Kuldeep Bishnoi , t he youngest MP had notched up in just a few months a record of taking part in 22 debates, posing 152 questions and an attendance of 89%.
When this writer interviewed him then, he said: “I am only one of two MPS from my party so I don’t have a choice, we have to work very hard.’’
In a raucous parliament, the 6 feet 4 inch Sanawar School and American University graduate
DUSHYANT CHAUTALA, JJP chief
stood out for his polite and serious demeanour. While he continued to steadily work as an MP, his party was at the time more or less insignificant in Haryana.
In November last year, the INLD headed for a split after a family fight. Dushyant and his brother, backed by their father Ajay Chautala, pulled away from t he p a r t y a f t e r b e c o ming estranged from their uncle Abhay Chautala, and went on to found the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP).
“My father at that time had said that we should leave everything in the party and build something new,” Dushyant Chautala told HT on Thursday night after the JJP won 10 seats in the 90-member assembly to emerge as a potential kingmaker.
The parent party INLD had scored just a single seat, which was won by his uncle, “We proved that the real legacy of Chaudhary Devi Lal was with our party, the JJP,” he said.
The first one to spot potential in JJP was Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal, who tied up with the party in the Lok Sabha elections. And then Ashok Tanwar, the rebel Congress leader, too, said that he would put his weight behind him.
On Thursday evening, as Sirsa independent and newly elected lawmaker Gopal Kanda was heading down to Delhi while posting selfies in a private plane, Dushyant Chautala was meeting his party colleagues.
Many thought he had missed t he bus, t aking t oo l ong t o respond to overtures from the BJP for a tie-up. “I have to move sensibly,’’ he told HT, “I have come so far by thinking and acting sensibly.”