Both Chautalas-led factions — the Indian National Lok Dal and the Jannayak Janta Party — will hold rallies in Haryana and Rajasthan respectively with different political agendas to mark the birth anniversary of the late Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal.
While the INLD’s “Samman Diwas Samaroh” at Kaithal will mark the official culmination of the party’s 4,000-km “Parivartan Yatra” across the State’s 90 Assembly constituencies with a call for political change in Haryana, the JJP will kick off its campaign for Rajasthan’s Assembly polls with “Kisan Vijay Samman Diwas” rally in Sikar, the Lok Sabha constituency represented by Chaudhary Devi Lal in 1989.
Several prominent leaders from the INDIA bloc, including Lalu Prasad, Sharad Pawar, Nitish Kumar, Uddhav Thackeray, along with former Governor Satyapal Malik are likely to attend the INLD’s rally. The party, unlike on the previous occasions, has extended invitation to the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress though the confirmation from the two parties was awaited.
Tie-up with Congress
INLD’s secretary general Abhay Chautala, at a press conference in Chandigarh a week ago, had said his party was not averse to a tie-up with the Congress in Haryana to defeat the BJP, causing ripples in the State politics with the Congress’ former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda saying that his party was capable of winning the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections on its own and ruled out any alliance.
Janata Dal (united) spokesperson K.C. Tyagi had supported Mr. Abhay Chautala saying that when the fight was against the BJP’s might, no party could be treated as untouchable.
Aiming to revive its old connect with the Rajasthan electorate in the districts bordering Haryana, the JJP has been preparing to contest the State’s Assembly polls for the past one year and now announced to formally launch its campaign coinciding with the birth anniversary of Chaudhary Devi Lal, fondly known as “Tau”. The Chautalas have ancestral roots in Bikaner’s Nokha village and earlier contested and won elections from Rajasthan. JJP’s national president Ajay Singh Chautala has been elected as an MLA from Rajasthan twice: Dantaramgarh in 1989, and Nohar in 1998.
JJP leader and Haryana’s Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala said the party was aiming to contest 20-25 Assembly segments in Rajasthan and field strong candidates to emerge as a “kingmaker” in the polls. He said drug abuse was on the rise in Rajasthan under the present Congress regime which had made a wasteful expenditure of crores of rupees on advertisements. He added that mining mafia was dominant in the State and women were not safe with rise in crimes.