The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
In Hisar, Chautala bahus take on each other — and sasur
THE HISAR Lok Sabha seat in Haryana is set to see a fight between ‘bahus’ (daughters-inlaw) and a ‘sasur’ (father-in law), with three members of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal's clan pitted against each other.
Those in the fray include Devi Lal’s son Ranjit Singh Chuatala, fielded by the BJP, and Naina Chautala, who has been given a ticket by the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP). Naina is the wife of JJP president Ajay Singh Chautala, the son of former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, another son of Devi Lal.
On Thursday, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) announced the name of the party’s women’s wing general secretary Sunaina Chautala from Hisar. Sunaina is the wife of Ravi Chautala, the son of late Partap Singh Chautala, Devi Lal’s youngest son.
All three Chautala clan members would like to wrest the seat that Naina’s son and Haryana’s former deputy chief minister, Dushyant Chuatala, had represented in 2014, and which he subsequently lost to BJP’S Brijendra Singh in 2019. Brijendra, a bureaucrat-turned politician, last month resigned as MP and joined the Congress and is among the frontrunners for party ticket from Hisar.
While Naina is a two-time MLA — she currently represents Badhra in Charkhi Dadri district in Vidhan Sabha — Ranjit Chautala is a seasoned politician
having served as a minister in his father's Cabinet and was even elected to the Rajya Sabha. He has had a stint with INLD, the Janata Dal, and the Congress. He won the 2019 Assembly polls from Rania as an Independent candidate, was granted Cabinet berth in the governments led by Manohar Lal Khattar and Nayab Simgh Saini, and and joined the BJP last month.
Sunaina, meanwhile, has been extensively campaigning in the Lok Sabha constituency. She entered active politics in 2019 and had been leading INLD'S women wing since then. She becomes the second woman of the Chautala clan, after Naina, to enter active politics. Her husband Ravi had previously remained in Congress, too. However, he quit Congress in 2009 and contested as Independent candidate from Dabwali but could not win. In 2013, he returned to the INLD.
The Chautala clan had suffered a split in 2019 following which Ajay and his family, including wife Naina and sons Dushyant and Digvijay and their loyalists, separated from the INLD and formed the JJP. Earlier this month, Ajay said he could rejoin the INLD if its chief OP Chautala takes the initiative, but his brother Abhay ruled out the reunion, saying there is no place for "traitors" in the party.
The INLD also announced fielding Abhay from Kurukshetra and party's youth leader Gurpreet Singh, a Sikh face, from Ambala reserved constituency.
Abhay will be taking on BJP'S Naveen Jindal, AAP'S state unit chief Dr Sushil Gupta.