Tie-up bid refused, cadres defect to JJP: INLD is a party in disarray

Gurgaon: The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which has existed in various shapes since 1966, is passing through its worst phase ever. As is often the case with family-based parties, the split in the family of former deputy PM Devi Lal has witnessed its fortunes fall drastically. Friction between two of his grandsons — Ajay and Abhay — has brought INLD down to its knees.
Ajay and his son Dushyant, who were expelled from INLD, have managed to make their nascent Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) stand on its feet within a few months. On the other hand, incarceration of party founder Devi Lal’s son, former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, has hampered Abhay’s efforts to keep his flock together.
How badly INLD has been hit can be gauged from two things — Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) humiliated it by calling off their alliance and defections to JJP left its effective strength in the state assembly to nearly half.
Before the flashpoint was reached
In 2013, Om Prakash Chautala and his son Ajay — who was seen as his political heir — were sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted in the JBT teachers’ recruitment scam. They left the party in the hands of Abhay and Dushyant. But uncle and nephew did not see eye-to-eye on several issues, and differences grew.
The flashpoint was reached at the INLD rally in Gohana in October 2018. Dushyant’s supporters raised slogans in support of the young MP, in the presence of an angry O P Chautala, who was then out on parole. Chautala Sr ordered the party’s youth wing led by Dushyant, and student wing Indian National Students’ Organisation (INSO) his younger brother Digvijay, to be dissolved. A bitter, emotional war of words ensued, soon to be followed by the expulsions in November 2018.
By December, the young Dushyant, who represents Hisar in Parliament, launched his new outfit by cocking a snook at grandpa Om Prakash and skipping a generation up to laying claim on the political legacy of great-grandfather Chaudhary Devi Lal, popularly called called ‘Jannayak’.
Alliance altered
INLD had joined hands with BSP) in April 2018, pitching BSP supremo Mayawati as their prime ministerial candidate. But as factionalism grew in INLD, Mayawati ditched it to strike an alliance with Raj Kumar Saini’s new outfit, Loktanter Suraksha Party. While calling off the alliance, BSP issued a statement saying the family should first sort things out and reunite if it wanted a tie-up.
The arrival of JJP came as a body blow to INLD, because most of its office-bearers switched over. Its impact is still visible on the ground. Even INLD’s traditional partner Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which has a following in Sikh-majority districts of Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Sirsa and Karnal, has gone with BJP this time, despite the close relations between O P Chautala and SAD’s Parkash Singh Badal.
A desperate INLD tried to stitch up an alliance with BJP, but got rejected, as the latter saw the former as a political burden.
The main reason behind the turmoil in INLD being differences between Abhay and Dushyant, comparisons and bets are naturally being drawn on how they are faring post split. Dushyant has tied up with AAP. This may not fetch too many votes, as AAP’s reach in Haryana is limited to the urban and non-Jat voters, but it has ensured that INLD’s main campaigner, the ageing but still popular O P Chautala, remains behind bars.
AAP’s Delhi government allowed condition-free parole to Ajay from Tihar Jail, but sat on a similar request for parole from the 84-year-old former chief minister, denying INLD the sole face that commands respect and obedience.
Down to half in assembly, decimated outside
INLD was the main opposition party in Haryana assembly since 2009. Last month, it lost the status after its MLA count dropped to 15. In the 2014 assembly polls, INLD had won 19 seats in Haryana. Its Jind MLA Hari Chand Middha died in December and the party lost the bypoll to BJP in January. The same month, its Pehowa MLA Jasvinder Singh Sandhu passed away. More recently, MLAs Kehar Singh Rawat and Ranbir Singh Gangwa resigned from the House to join BJP. But that’s not the end of INLD’s troubles. Abhay has been forced to demand disqualification of five party MLAs, four for supporting JJP and one for backing BJP.
As a small regional outfit, INLD’s fortunes in parliamentary polls has swung wildly. After getting five in 1999, it couldn’t open its account in 2004 and 2009. However, it had won the state assembly polls in 2000, with 47 of the total 90 assembly seats. However, by 2005, it was back in the dumps when it won only nine assembly seats, recovering slightly in the 2009 assembly polls with 31 seats. Its Lok Sabha fortunes brightened again in 2014, when Dushyant won from Hisar and Charanjeet Singh Rori from Sirsa. Can Abhay, considered a good manager but without mass appeal, fill in his father’s boots and paddle INLD out of the political rapids? Voters of the state will decide over the next month.