While action has been swift against her husband and sons, Naina Chautala has escaped the axe due to INLD’s numbers in the assembly.
New Delhi: The family feud at the heart of Haryana’s Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has conspicuously spared one obvious victim — Naina Chautala.
Naina Chautala is the wife of Ajay Chautala and the mother of Dushyant Chautala and Digvijay Chautala, who have all been expelled from the party by party supremo and her father-in-law, Om Prakash Chautala.
Ajay Chautala is Om Prakash Chautala’s older son and the two are currently serving a 10-year jail term in teachers’ recruitment scam case.
Naina, who is also an MLA from Dabwali, has curiously managed to hold on to her membership in the INLD. She has even dared the party to take the same action that has been effected against her husband and sons.
At a rally in brother-in-law Abhay Chautala’s constituency, Ellenabad, Naina Friday called on him to “expel her from the party”.
So far, however, she has been spared the axe.
Sources said that the party is taking no action against Naina as with its 18 seats in the 90-member Haryana Vidhan Sabha, it is barely holding on to its position as the main opposition party with the support of a few independents.
The Congress has 17 seats, while the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government has the majority of 47 seats.
Expelling Naina would mean endangering Abhay Chautala’s post as the leader of opposition in the state assembly, especially considering three other MLAs have publicly backed Dushyant. These include Ulkana MLA Anoop Dhanak, Bhiwani MLA Rajdeep Phogat and Faridabad MLA Nagender Bhadana.
If Naina is expelled, and the other three decide to walk as well, Congress could easily call for a vote for the post of leader of the opposition.
Also read: Haryana has a flashback as OP Chautala’s sons fight it out over father’s legacy
‘Abhay calling the shots’
The retention of Naina has given fresh impetus to Dushyant and Ajay’s claims that the actions against them are being guided by Abhay and not the INLD patriarch Om Prakash Chautala. They continue to refer to the senior Chautala as the head of the family and the party.
Earlier, Dushyant had also refused to accept his suspension from the party alleging a “conspiracy.” However, a letter signed by the INLD patriarch and attested by the deputy superintendent of Tihar jail confirming his father’s expulsion surfaced Friday, dispelling the theory.
Also read: INLD splits as Ajay Singh Chautala declares he’ll float new party
New party on the horizon
The political grapevine has also been abuzz with the news of a new political outfit since the crisis began in the INLD. Ajay Chautala, at an “executive party meet” Saturday, “gifted” the party symbol to his younger brother Abhay confirming that they (Ajay and sons) will forming their own front soon. A political rally by the same is expected early December.
INLD has been making headlines for weeks now ever since party supremo Om Prakash Chautala first expelled grandsons Dushyant, a member of parliament from Hisar, and Digvijay, former president of the INLD’s student wing for alleged “indiscipline”.
This was closely followed by the expulsion of his elder son, Ajay Chautala, from the party’s primary membership, and his post as state general secretary for “anti-party activities.”