A woman plays the dhol to welcome the crowd during the rally, Sunday. (Express Photo by Jasbir Malhi)In the middle of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) rally held in Fatehabad on Sunday, suddenly a senior citizen jumped into the media gallery and asked a journalist: “How many attended today’s rally.” The journalist replied in a way which easily made him happy as the numbers were highly exaggerated. The senior citizen, who was being called “tau” by others, left and was with the crowd in a jiffy to tell the numbers.
But in reality, too, the impressive crowd had made the leaders and workers of INLD very happy. It can be easily said that it was the biggest rally of INLD after the party’s Gohana rally held in 2018. However, the 2018 rally had created a rift in the Chautala family, leading to split in the party and formation of Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Party (JJP). Later, the JJP went on to win 10 seats in the 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls, while the INLD could bag just one.
Like today, INLD had been holding a rally every year – except in 2020 – on September 25 to celebrate the birth anniversary of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal. In 2020, the event was not held due to the Covid pandemic. In 2021, too, the party had organised a rally at Jind to mark the occasion. That time, too, several Opposition leaders had participated. But in terms of crowd, today’s (Sunday) rally was considered bigger than the one at Jind.
With top Opposition leaders, especially JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar, NCP’s Sharad Pawar and CPM’s Sitaram Yechury, attending Sunday’s event, the participants came to the rally while dancing on the beats of dhols.
A woman activist, Guddi Petwar, who was dancing along with other women, said: “One day everyone gets a chance. Now this is the time of Om Prakash Chautala.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Jagga Jaildar from Fatehabad’s Gorakhpur village said, “With this successful rally, Chautala has proved that he still has the magic to woo the farmers. Today’s rally has revived the hopes that INLD can make an impressive comeback.”
On Sunday, INLD supporters, including women, were clad in green clothes with senior citizens sporting a green-coloured turban.
INLD is hoping for a comeback riding on its support extended to the farmers when they were struggling against the three contentious central farm laws which were later repealed. Notably, the farmer bodies had criticised Dushyant Chautala’s JJP for not “openly” siding with the agitators.
INLD had managed to gather an impressive crowd on Sunday despite heavy rain in the past two days – Friday and Saturday. Even on Sunday, there were showers in several parts of the state, but the party supporters braved the inclement weather and made the event a huge success.
Jagga Jaildar, who is a former village sarpanch, said, “Fortunately, there was no rain in Fatehabad since Sunday morning. But even if there had been showers, people would still have made it to the rally in large numbers.”