Gurugram: It began with an appeal from Ranjit Singh, a former Haryana minister and Chaudhary Devi Lal’s only surviving son, urging different branches of the family to set aside old differences and come together to revive the former deputy prime minister’s influence.
The Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) president, Ajay Singh Chautala, responded with cautious optimism, acknowledging Ranjit as the family elder and pledging support for his efforts. His son, Dushyant, however, was opposed to the idea of a détente.
Ajay is the grandson of Devi Lal and son of the late Om Prakash Chautala. His son Dushyant served as deputy chief minister under BJP’s Manohar Lal Khattar for four and a half years until last year.
Ajay’s younger brother Abhay Singh Chautala, however, drew a clear line: true reconciliation requires those who betrayed their fathers to first offer sincere apologies.
With this, Abhay, who is national president of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD)—the party Devi Lal founded in 1998—underscored that it would take more than blood ties to heal the wounds inflicted by members of the Devi Lal clan on their own.
In an interaction with the media at Sirsa last week, Ranjit Singh, third of Devi Lal ’s four sons, commented on his father’s political legacy being in dire straits. If all members of the Devi Lal clan come together, they can revive the legacy, he submitted.
Ranjit lost the Lok Sabha election from Hisar as a BJP candidate and his traditional Rania Vidhan Sabha seat in Sirsa as an independent in 2024, while his elder nephew Ajay Singh Chautala’s JJP failed to win any seat in the Lok Sabha or assembly elections. And his younger nephew’s INLD won just two Vidhan Sabha seats.
“There are still a lot of votes in the name of Chaudhary Devi Lal. If all members of his clan come together, the elections in Haryana will be one-sided. If they remain divided, no one will be able to get more than 4 to 5 seats. Last time, the JJP won 10 and the INLD got just one. This time, JJP scored a zero while INLD could win only two,” Singh said.
Responding to his uncle’s call Saturday, Ajay Singh Chautala told the media in Hisar that if Ranjit Singh, who is the eldest surviving member of the Chaudhary Devi Lal clan, makes an effort to unite the family, he would support the efforts.
Ranjit Singh told ThePrint Sunday that he sincerely believed the time had come for the family to set aside its differences for the sake of saving the legacy of Chaudhary Devi Lal, which is in tatters. Asked whether by unity he meant a merger of the JJP and the INLD alone or if he (Singh) too would join them, Ranjit Singh said that when he said unity among the descendants of Chaudhary Devi Lal, he meant himself too.
“Calling for a reconciliation between Ajay Singh Chautala’s JJP and Abhay Singh Chautala’s INLD would mean unity among Om Prakash Chautala’s descendants alone. But what I wanted to achieve was unity among the heirs of Chaudhary Devi Lal,” he said.
Ajay Chautala told The Print that he supports any efforts by Chaudhary Ranjit Singh to bring the dissenting family members together.
Asked whether his sons—former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala and Indian National Students Organisation (INSO) chief Digvijay—were ready for a reunion with their estranged uncle Abhay Singh Chautala, Ajay Chautala said that when he (Ajay Chautala) says something, that means the consent of his sons. “Do you think Dushyant Chautala or Digvijay Chautala are on a different page than I?” he asked.
Interestingly, the rapprochement is being initiated not long after Abhay Singh Chautala’s INLD organised a successful rally at Rohtak on 25 September to mark Chaudhary Devi Lal’s birth anniversary.
INLD chief Abhay Singh Chautala told ThePrint that he doesn’t have any problems with the unity efforts, but those who are talking about it now must first apologise for backstabbing their respective fathers and give reasons for what they did.
“My uncle, Ranjit Singh, backstabbed his father on several occasions, including when Chaudhary Devi Lal was leading the Opposition’s fight against Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress at the national level in 1989. He eventually became the deputy PM. Though he could have become the PM, he gave this honour to V.P. Singh,” said Abhay Chautala.
“Similarly, my elder brother, Ajay Singh, and his sons backstabbed his father, Om Prakash Chautala, when he was in prison. They should apologise for what they did to their fathers, and then, I won’t have any problems with the unity,” he added.
Ruling out the possibility of any unity, Dushyant told The Print Monday that what his father Ajay said should be viewed in the perspective of family unity and not a political union. “Tell me a single example across the country where family members who parted ways came together. The only example is of the Yadav clan but there too the uncle Shivpal Yadav came to Akhilesh Yadav’s fold. Why should we join the INLD now?” he asked.
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Chaudhary Devi Lal and his political legacy
Spearheaded by Devi Lal, the Chautala clan stands as Haryana’s most enduring and prolific political family with at least 10 members elected to the Haryana Legislative Assembly, Lok Sabha, or Rajya Sabha over a span of 77 years. Owing to his towering persona as a Jat leader, agrarian reformist, and champion of rural and farmer-centric causes, Devi Lal earned an affectionate sobriquet, “Tau” (uncle), among the masses in Haryana.
He served as Haryana’s chief minister from 1977 to 1979 and again from 1987 to 1989.
In 1989, he contested the Lok Sabha elections from three seats across three different states—Rohtak in Haryana, Sikar in Rajasthan and Faridkot in Punjab—and won the first two. He then rose to become the deputy prime minister of the country.
Such was his popularity that he came to power in Haryana with 75 out of 90 assembly seats in 1977, and 76 seats in 1987.
Devi Lal had four sons, namely Om Prakash Chautala, Partap Singh Chautala, Ranjit Singh and Jagdish Chander.
While Jagdish Chander died early and Partap Singh Chautala became MLA just once in 1967 from Ellenabad, both Om Prakash Chautala and Ranjit Singh remained active. Om Prakash Chautala won his first election from Ellenabad in 1970 and Ranjit Singh from Rori in 1987.
Om Prakash Chautala was chief minister from 1989–90, 1990–91, 1999-2000, and 2000-05. He was a five-time MLA.
Ranjit Singh, however, left his father’s party and joined the Congress after the 1991 elections. He moved to the BJP ahead of the 2004 general election, but returned to the Congress in 2005 when Bhupinder Singh Hooda came to power in Haryana.
He contested the 2009 assembly elections as an Independent, won and extended support to Manohar Lal Khattar. He was made a minister in the Khattar-led BJP government.
He joined the BJP again before the May 2024 Lok Sabha elections and unsuccessfully contested the Hisar seat as a BJP candidate. However, he quit the BJP again ahead of the October 2024 assembly polls and unsuccessfully contested from the Rania assembly seat, losing to his nephew Abhay Chautala’s son Arjun Singh Chautala.
Family members of Devi Lal’s two other sons—Partap Singh Chautala and Jagdish Chander—are now with Abhay Singh Chautala. Partap Chautala’s daughter-in-law, Sunaina, is president of the women’s wing of the party and contested the Hisar Lok Sabha seat in 2024, while Chander’s son, Aditya Devilal, is an INLD MLA from the Dabwali assembly seat.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)