E-Paper
Chautala clan falls by the wayside in Haryana
From the Jat-dominated Hisar seat, Congress’ candidate Jai Parkash, alias JP, who was also Devi Lal’s protégé, defeated three members of the Devi Lal clan, his son Ranjit Chautala of BJP, daughters-in-law Sunaina Chautala (Indian National Lok Dal) and Naina Chautala (Jannayak Janata Party).
In a setback to the Devi Lal family of Haryana, four members of the influential clan tasted defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, the results for which were declared on Tuesday. Ranjit Chautala, Naina Chautala, Sunaina Chautala and Abhay Singh Chautala had contested the polls on two seats, Hisar and Kurukshetra, but the voters rejected them.
From the Jat-dominated Hisar seat, Congress’ candidate Jai Parkash, alias JP, who was also Devi Lal’s protégé, defeated three members of the Devi Lal clan, his son Ranjit Chautala of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), daughters-in-law Sunaina Chautala (Indian National Lok Dal) and Naina Chautala (Jannayak Janata Party). JP defeated his nearest rival Ranjit by a margin of 63,381 votes and Devi Lal’s both daughters-in-law failed to save their security deposits.
Naina is the daughter-in-law of his eldest son OP Chautala, and Sunaina is the daughter-in-law of his second son Pratap Singh Chautala. Former Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala’s mother Naina polled just 22,032 votes and Sunaina got 22,303 votes.
Congress candidate JP polled 5,70, 424 votes and Ranjit got 5,07,043 votes. This is JP’s fourth win from Hisar Lok Sabha. However, Devi Lal’s grandson Abhay Singh Chautala, son of former Haryana chief minister OP Chautala, got 78,708 votes from Kurukshetra and finished third with just 6.53% vote percentage. Hisar, Sirsa and Kurukshetra parliamentary seats were hotbeds of the farmers’ protest.
The Devi Lal clan has strongholds in Hisar and Sirsa parliamentary seats but the candidates of both parties, INLD and its offshoot Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) of Dushyant Chautala, failed to even secure their deposits. After a feud in the Chautala clan, both the INLD and JJP failed to win even a single seat in the 2019 and 2024 general polls. The JJP’s vote percentage stood at 0.87% and INLD’s 1.74%.
Ranjit Chautala, who contested the general polls on BJP’s ticket from Hisar, finished second as he faced farmers’ ire in the rural belts. Farmers, particularly Jats, have rejected scions of Devi Lal (except Abhay) for not supporting the farmers and wrestlers’ protest, besides supporting the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government after it fell short of majority in the 2019 assembly polls.
Ranjit Chautala, an Independent from Rania seat in Sirsa, and Dushyant, who has support of 10 MLAs, supported the BJP government after it fell short of the halfway mark. The people were against Dushyant and Ranjit for backing the BJP government even during farmers’ stir and Abhay had supported BJP in presidential poll and extended support to Kartikeya Sharma in the Rajya Sabha poll.
Retired political science professor Anant Ram said that the Haryana voters have diminished Devi Lal scions for “betraying voters’ trust” and backing the BJP whenever they required their support.
He said that the Devi Lal scion have faced farmers’ wrath in rural areas and Ranjit got most of BJP’s core votes.
“The scions of Devi Lal have created mistrust in the public and the Congress has launched a campaign in Haryana against them while accusing them of being BJP’s hidden friends. The JJP and INLD have supported the BJP in the presidential and Rajya Sabha polls and people of Haryana are aware of every political move, and they routed them in this election,” he said.
Another poll expert Satish Tyagi said that a leader has to become popular in his/her community first and the Devi Lal scions were rejected by Jats and other communities too did not repose faith in them.
