Gurugram: Haryana minister and BJP candidate from Hisar, Ranjit Singh, was trailing behind his nearest rival Jai Parkash (JP) of the Congress by more than 60,000 votes at 6.30 pm Tuesday.
The third son of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal, Ranjit Singh is also pitted against two other members of the clan – his father’s granddaughters-in-law, Naina Chautala of the JJP and Sunaina Chautala of the INLD.
Naina Chautala is wife of Ajay Singh Chautala, the son of Devi Lal’s eldest son Om Prakash Chautala. Sunaina Chautala is the wife of Ravi Chautala, the son of Devi Lal’s other son Partap Singh Chautala.
Naina Chautala and Sunaina Chautala have so far been able to get around 22,000 votes each.
The Hisar Lok Sabha seat has been a stronghold of the Devi Lal clan. Devi Lal’s great grandson and JJP chief Dushyant Chautala became MP from Hisar in 2014 as an INLD candidate. In 2019, he contested as a JJP candidate after a split in the INLD and lost to Brijendra Singh of the BJP.
In a by-election held in 2011, Dushyant’s father Ajay Singh Chautala (INLD) lost narrowly to Kuldeep Bishnoi (Haryana Janhit Congress-Bhajan Lal) by a margin of 6,335 votes.
In the 1984 parliamentary polls after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, Om Prakash Chautala contested from Hisar but lost to Birender Singh of the Congress.
The parties headed by members of the Devi Lal clan also won this seat in 1998 and 1999. In 2004, INLD’s Surender Barwala finished second to Jai Parkash of the Congress while in 2009, the INLD’s Sampat Singh finished second to HJC-BL candidate Bhajan Lal.
After the split, however, the INLD has not been able to come close to its previous performances. The vote share of Naina Chautala further shows that the JJP may also fail to repeat its 2019 performance.
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