Feud within Chautala clan may cost JJP Jind bypolls

The AAP recently extended its support to Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) for the bypoll, triggering allegations that the two had conspired to cancel the furlough of INLD chief.

The escalation of the feud in the Chautala clan following the cancellation of the furlough of former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi is threatening to cast its shadow on the Jind assembly bypoll scheduled for January 28.

Former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala wanted to campaign for the INLD candidate, Umed Singh Redhu, in the bypoll and his fresh confinement came as a blow to the party’s campaign.(HT Photo)

The AAP recently extended its support to Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) for the bypoll, triggering allegations that the two had conspired to cancel the furlough of INLD chief.

The former chief minister wanted to campaign for the INLD candidate, Umed Singh Redhu, in the bypoll and his fresh confinement came as a blow to the party’s campaign. As if the television grabs of an incensed Om Prakash Chautala, shifted at night from a Delhi hospital to Tihar jail, blaming his grandsons for getting his furlough cancelled were not enough, a video clip of his wife and Dushyant’s grandmother heaping curses on the grandsons stunned the JJP leadership.

The INLD quickly recalibrated its poll campaign by circulating a letter written by the former chief minister, terming his grandsons as traitors and urging voters to take revenge by supporting the INLD nominee.

An ad produced by the INLD, taking a dig at Dushyant and Digvijay Chautala is also in wide circulation. The ad castigates the duo with the melancholic singer crooning “Ab bhi jiska khoon na khaula, khoon nahi woh pani hai, jo dada dadi ke kaam na aaya woh bekar jawani hai…. Jind neend te jag liya, bhai janta ho gaye sayani [if somebody’s blood does not boil even now, it is not blood but water. If it does not serve one’s grandparents, then youth is useless… Jind has woken from its slumber, now the public knows what’s happening].”

“Both Dushyant and Digvijay knew that they will be exposed in public once the INLD chief comes out to campaign for the party nominee. The two brothers claimed to have their grandfather’s support during the election campaign,” said INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala, the youngest son of Om Prakash Chautala and uncle of Dushyant and Digvijay . “ People of Jind will not forgive Dushyant and Digvijay,’’ he said.

The latest round of the ongoing feud has evoked a strong reaction among the core votebank of the INLD. Dushyant and his father Ajay Singh Chautala (Om Prakash Chautala’s eldest son) had gained public sympathy following their expulsion from INLD but the turn of events has showed them in bad light. Political analysts in Jind said the ongoing family feud will adversely affect the JJP’s poll campaign.