As the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) shrinks in Haryana, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief Abhay Chautala is trying to reclaim the political space vacated by it.
On September 25, the birth anniversary of the late Chautala family patriarch and former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, Abhay will be holding a rally in Rohtak. It is the first big event being held by the Chautala family since the death of former Haryana Chief Minister and Devi Lal’s son Om Prakash Chautala (Abhay’s father) in December 2024.
The site of the rally is also significant as Rohtak is the home turf of senior Congress leader and fellow Jat leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Abhay has invited Shiromani Akali Dal chief and ex-Punjab CM Sukhbir Singh Badal (the Badals and Chautalas are old family friends), Rajasthan MP Hanuman Beniwal of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, and Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary of the National Conference, for the event.
“This is not a programme of the third front… Many of those leaders have already aligned themselves with either the BJP or the Congress. This event will bring together leaders who stand outside both camps,” Abhay said.
The INLD leader has toured all 90 Assembly constituencies in Haryana to mobilise support for the rally. He plans to hold meetings with key party leaders at district headquarters, while INLD cadre have been instructed to organise public gatherings in 35 constituencies surrounding Rohtak.
Abhay denied outright the suggestion that the choice of the venue was dictated by the fact that it is Hooda’s turf. “Hooda has no base here. Everyone in the country knows he is hand in glove with the BJP,” he said.
His denial notwithstanding, rallying Jat support is crucial for the INLD to claw back to the position it once held in the state. If grandfather Devi Lal remains the state’s preeminent Jat leader, Om Prakash also held much clout in his time.
The larger Rohtak belt was a traditional stronghold of Devi Lal’s Lok Dal movement, particularly during the height of his political influence in Haryana.
Hooda broke that streak by defeating Devi Lal successively in three closely contested Lok Sabha elections (1991, 1996, and 1998) from Rohtak. Since 2005, the Congress’s foremost Jat leader in the state has steadily consolidated his hold over the community in the state.
In the past few years, the INLD has had to contend with the JJP, formed in 2018 by Abhay’s nephew Dushyant Chautala, who left the INLD following a family rift.
In immediate success, the JJP won 10 seats in the 2019 Haryana Assembly polls. After the BJP fell short of a majority, the JJP offered support to it in return for Dushyant being made the Deputy Chief Minister.
However, the JJP has since seen a decline. Its vote share nosedived from 14.8% in 2019 to a mere 0.90% in the 2024 Assembly polls, with none of its candidates securing their deposits last year, in a BJP sweep. The BJP and JJP contested separately.
The INLD, which had won just one seat in 2019, did slightly better in 2024 – winning Dabwali (won by Aditya Devi Lal, the son of Jagdish Chander, Devi Lal’s fourth son); and Rania, won by Abhay’s son Arjun.
The INLD’s vote share, however, fell from 6.6% in 2019 to 4.14%. But it was way higher than the JJP’s, which is what is boosting Abhay’s hopes.
Abhay told The Indian Express: “All our workers have returned to the INLD. The JJP is finished. Even some of their office-bearers have joined us.”
The JJP is believed to have paid a price for Dushyant staying on with the BJP at the height of the farmers’ agitation in 2020 against three laws passed by the Centre. Abhay, on the other hand, resigned as an MLA in protest against the laws, earning the goodwill of the agrarian communities.
Asked about Abhay’s rally, both the BJP and Congress downplayed its significance. Haryana BJP president Mohan Lal Badoli said “the public has rejected the INLD”. Congress media in-charge Chandvir Hooda claimed the INLD has no base left in Haryana.