Delhi govt nixes Chautala's jail relief, blocks his bid to campaign

CHANDIGARH: In a sudden turn of events, Delhi government on Monday cancelled the three-week furlough sanctioned last week to former Haryana CM and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) patriarch Om Prakash Chautala, who has been in Tihar jail, a convict in the Haryana teacher recruitment scam.

Chautala and his elder son Ajay Chautala - father of Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) netas Dushyant and Digvijay - have been incarcerated in Delhi's Tihar since 2013. INLD had plans for the veteran to campaign in Jind ahead of the January 28 bypoll. It claimed Chautala's release was seen by JJP as a serious threat and that his presence in Haryana in the last few days of campaign could prove tough for JJP-supported candidate Digvijay Chautala.

The Jind bypoll is the first election after INLD split in which the two factions of the Chautala family are fighting each other . Delhi government had made Chautala senior's release conditional - he had to remain confined to his Teja Khera farm house in Haryana's Sirsa district. He was later informed he could not participate in any political event either.

INLD blamed JJP for the cancellation and alleged it was linked to the newly-formed alliance for the Jind byelection between JJP and AAP, said INLD president Ashok Arora. "Within hours of announcement of the AAP-JJP alliance in the bypolls, Delhi government cancelled OP Chautala's release. Chautala, under treatment at Delhi's LNJP Hospital, was also forcefully shifted to jail late Monday evening. Frustrated Digvijay and Dushyant Chautala have stooped so low they forced an old man into jail to serve political motives," Arora alleged.

JJP general secretary KC Bangar told TOI his party had no role in cancelling the OP Chautala's parole. "Why would we do that? We have parted ways with INLD... JJP leaders are nowhere in the picture," Banger said.