Abhay Chautala declared successor of father Om Parkash Chautala during’Pagdi ‘ ceremony

Gustakhi Maaf Haryana-Pawan Kumar Bansal.

Abhay Chautala declared successor of father Om Parkash Chautala during’Pagdi ‘ ceremony- Tough task for him to carry political legacy of once most powerful political family of the State.

Now big responsibility lies on the shoulders of Abhay Chautala to keep alive political Legacy of his grandfather Devi Lal.With the crushing defeat in recent Lok Sabha and Assembly elections of his party Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and death of his father Om Parkash Chautala , a five- time Haryana CM, it is interesting to watch how he runs the party ..Thirty six years back,Devi Lal ,grandfather of Abhay Chautala, had launched a campaign against the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and had ousted him from power by uniting all opposition parties under the banner of Janata Dal and had installed VP Singh as the Prime Minister.

But since then much water has flown into Ganga and Devi Lal,family is almost out of power struggle in Haryana since the year 2004..Devi Lal was dismissed from the post of Deputy Prime Minister by the then PM, VP,Singh .Although about twenty four years back Om Parkash Chautala had become CM of Haryana but since the year 2004, the Indian National Lok Dal has been out of power. The death of Om Parkash Chautala is another setback for the party. The party had already seen a split with Ajay Chautala ,another grandson of Devi Lal and his son Duyshant Chautala forming a separate party Jannayak Janata Party(JJP) and had supported BJP in forming government in Haryana five years back as a junior partner with Dushyant Chautala as the Deputy Chief Minister.

In the recently concluded Lok Sabha and Assembly elections prominent members of the Devi Lal clan including Ranjit Chautala,Dushyant Chautala and Abhay Chautala lost the elections. Unfortunately,a few months back, Nafe Singh Rathi, party’s state president ,was murdered .In such an uncertain political scenario , Abhay Chautala has to revive the party which has only two members in the current Haryana Assembly. Followers of Devi Lal are divided between INLD and JJP .Although a large number of party workers had attended the cremation of Om Parkash Chautala at Tejakhera Farm House but it is not certain how many of them actually support the INLD.

In the next about five years there is no election due in Haryana barring the local bodies’ polls in urban areas of the state where the party has little support and stakes ..Although Abhay Chautala has been in the forefront for raising the issues of farmers and he had resigned from his MLA’s seat in the last Assembly in their support but again it is yet to be seen whether farming communities accept him as their leader. He has good chance of winning the confidence of people by raising their grievances as the Congress, the main opposition party with five members in Lok Sabha and 37 legislators in Haryana, is a divided house and it is yet to choose leader of the legislature party.

Political analyst Devinder Surjewala opines that Abhay Chautala is a born fighter but he has a tough task ahead regarding revival of the party. Abhay may emerge as a leader if like his grandfather Devi Lal, he succeeds in making the party acceptable to leaders of all castes, he claims. . Aam Adami Party (AAP) as on date does not have any significant role in Haryana and only Congress and INLD are the two opposition parties competing in the state’s political landscape. The disadvantage for INLD is its influence is now confined only to some rural pockets of Sirsa and Fatehabad districts. Beyond these areas, more particularly in urban and semi-urban areas, INLD is no more relevant and its vote share is fast depleting. Both the Congress and the BJP are fast eating into its vote share.

In the absence of Om Parkash Chautala , As an individual’s personality, behaviour and acumen count in politics,it is uncertain how much Abhay would succeed in connecting with the old sympathisers of the party. In the absence of Devi Lal and Om Parkash Chautala , Abhay may find it tough to win hearts of the older generation voters who associated with Devi Lal and Om Parkash Chautala and had personal rapport with them. In the absence of Devi Lal and Om Parkash Chautala,,Abhay is yet to test the waters and has yet to prove his calibre in carrying on the legacy of Devi Lal and Om Parkash Chautala . .