INLD close to split, Chautala vows to act against Dushyant

Sushil Manav & Sumedha Sharma
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh/Gurugram, October 18

A split in the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) seems imminent. Amid a clamour for Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala’s expulsion at the party’s working committee meeting in Gurugram on Thursday, party patriarch Om Prakash Chautala reportedly told the leaders that he would take a call on October 25, stressing the report of the disciplinary committee was a must. 

“Anyone who threatens the party will find me standing against him. I am not a father or a grandfather when I adorn this pagri (turban) of party supremo,” he is reported to have assured the leaders.

Both Dushyant and his younger brother Digvijay have been rather “defiant” ever since they were sent a notice and suspended on October 11 for anti-party activities in the wake of the ruckus at the party’s “Samman Rally” at Gohana, which, party leaders allege, was engineered by both the brothers.

Chautala’s furlough from the Tihar Central Jail, where he is serving sentence in the JBT recruitment scam, came to an end on Thursday. He will be out for a day for a medical check-up on October 25. It is then that he is expected to take a decision on the issue.

All eyes are now on Dushyant’s father Ajay Singh, serving imprisonment with his father, who is likely to be out on parole on Friday. It would be interesting to watch as to what would be his political move. Sources said the Chautala-Dushyant meeting, where other family members were present too, ended abruptly with Dushyant making a hasty exit as soon as his uncle Abhay Singh, with whom he has a family feud, arrived there. 

Dushyant, who met Chautala on Thursday morning at the latter’s 11-Meena Bagh residence in Delhi, wrote to INLD office secretary Nachhatar Singh Malhan the second time, seeking 15 more days to reply to the party notice. He had earlier in a letter dated October 14 sought proof of the charges against him. “Every day, I am mindful and proud to represent the passion, strength and integrity of the INLD. I understand it as my responsibility to make a positive impact in community. On the personal level, let me repeat that I have every intention to remain a part of the INLD family and I am extremely excited about the positive future of the party headed by our Chaudhary Om Prakash Chautala ji (sic),” read Dushyant’s letter.

The party's October 11 notice to Dushyant had accused him of gross indiscipline and hooliganism during the birthday celebrations of the late Chaudhary Devi Lal and of “causing disaffection within the party and conspiring with forces inimical to the INLD".