IT’S far from a surprise that Jagdeep Dhankhar, who has remained out of public view since he stopped down as former Vice-President more than a month ago, has picked Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief Abhay Singh Chautala’s farmhouse in Delhi’s Chhatarpur Enclave to stay in, as he waits for his official residence.
The ties between Dhankhar and the Chautalas go back nearly 40 years, to 1989, when Abhay’s grandfather Devi Lal – Haryana’s foremost Jat leader and then Chief Minister – identified the young lawyer from Rajasthan as a potential “leader”. In turn, Dhankhar, also a Jat, always referred to Devi Lal as his “mentor”.
Talking to The Indian Express ahead of Dhankhar moving into his farmhouse, Abhay said, “When I learnt Dhankhar ji was looking for a house to stay in and his own accommodation was not ready, I called him and asked him to stay at our place. It is a family gesture towards a person we see as our elder. I told him that he does not need to look for any alternative accommodation, and that it is his own house and he should come here. He graciously accepted.”
Dhankhar had caught Devi Lal’s eye when he organised 500 vehicles from Rajasthan for an Opposition rally held on September 25, 1989, to mark Devi Lal’s birthday, at Boat Club near India Gate. Devi Lal was at the time one of the leading figures of the Opposition coalition that had come together to challenge the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government at the Centre, and the success of the Boat Club rally was a big step in that direction.
In the 1989 Lok Sabha elections, the Opposition coalition fought as the Janata Dal. Devi Lal offered Dhankhar the Janata Dal ticket from the Jhunjhunu Lok Sabha seat, and actively campaigned for him. Not only did it strengthen their bond but it also meant that when Devi Lal became the Deputy Prime Minister in the Janata Dal government that replaced the Congress, Dhankhar was catapulted to Union Minister of State (Parliamentary Affairs).
Soon though, ties between Devi Lal and Prime Minister V P Singh soured. In 1990, when Singh dismissed Devi Lal, Dhankhar was the only minister who resigned from the Union Cabinet in support of the Jat leader. After V P Singh was replaced by Chandra Shekhar as PM, as the Janata Dal coalition unravelled, Devi Lal came back as Deputy PM and Dhankhar as MoS, Parliamentary Affairs.
But this government too proved short-lived, and Dhankhar quit the Janata Dal not long after, as Devi Lal formed the INLD. In the 1991 Lok Sabha elections, he contested from Ajmer on the Congress ticket, but lost. Dhankhar then shifted to Rajasthan politics, becoming a Congress MLA from Kishangarh in the 1993 Assembly elections.
Incidentally, in the same election, Devi Lal’s other grandson, Ajay Singh Chautala – now Abhay’s rival – won from the Nohar seat in Rajasthan on the INLD ticket.
On December 21, 2024, when INLD’s then chief and Devi Lal’s son (Abhay and Ajay’s father) Om Prakash Chautala passed away, Dhankar was among the first to reach for the State funeral. Dhankhar said at the time: “Five days ago, I spoke to Chautala Sahib (Om Prakash Chautala) and he was enquiring about my health. He was more concerned about me… His demise is a big loss to me… Farmers’ progress and development of villages were Chautala’s priority.”
In March this year, addressing an event, Dhankhar credited Devi Lal with persuading him to drop the “p” from “pleader”, and become a “leader”, thus inspiring him to enter politics.
After Dhankhar suddenly resigned as V-P on July 21, on the first day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Abhay called it a “conspiracy”, and claimed Dhankhar had been “made to resign” by PM Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
In a post on X, Abhay attacked the Modi government for failing to fulfill its assurances to farmers, and said: “The BJP cannot accept an individual who speaks of farmers and their welfare. Dhankhar ji, who learned politics from Chaudhary Devi Lal, only speaks of the welfare of farmers. He has not resigned voluntarily but has been made to resign by the Modi-Shah leadership.”
Speaking to The Indian Express, Abhay said: “We have been visiting Dhankhar ji since our childhood days. He has been part of our family in sorrow and in happiness. I regularly meet him, and this continued even after he became the V-P.”
Devi Lal’s son Ranjit Singh, who too is estranged from the Abhay side of the family, also describes Dhankhar as “a family member”. An Independent MLA, Ranjit served as a minister in the Manohar Lal Khattar-led Haryana government from 2019-2024. He again contested as an Independent in the October 2024 elections, but lost.