Ajay Chautala splits from INLD, says will float new party

THE ANNOUNCEMENT IN JIND ENDED THE SIMMERING POWER STRUGGLE IN THE INDIAN NATIONAL LOK DAL

JIND/CHANDIGARH: The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) split Saturday with former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala’s elder son Ajay Singh Chautala declaring he will set up a new party.

“I hand over the INLD and the spectacles (party symbol) to my younger brother as a gift,” Ajay Chautala, who was recently expelled from the party, told his supporters in Jind.

He also declared a war of sorts against his brother Abhay Singh Chautala, invoking the Mahabharata. “Duryodhana,” he said, in a veiled reference to the brother, “I spell out my final decision that now there will war, and not any pleas.” “Now, Duryodhana, you will be destroyed,” he said in Hindi.

The Jind announcement ended the simmering power struggle in the Indian National Lok Dal, which also saw the expulsion of Ajay Chautala’s sons Dushyant Chautala and Digvijay Chautala from the Haryana-based party.

The two were shunted out weeks after their slogan-shouting supporters allegedly targeted Abhay Chautala at an INLD rally in Gohana.

Ajay Chautala and his brother Abhay Chautala held parallel meetings on Saturday.

The elder brother had termed his Jind event a meeting of the party’s “state executive”, while Abhay Chautala held a workers’ meeting in Chandigarh.

Abhay Chautala said had his two nephews apologised to their grandfather and party chief Om Prakash Chautala over the “hooliganism” at the Gohana rally, they may not have been expelled.

To a query if Ajay’s exit would impact INLD, Abhay replied in negative and held that the INLD would now grow stronger.

“They had been misguided by some people who were trying to weaken the party,” he said.