Congress skips INLD’s ‘Samaan’ rally

Parveen Arora

Kaithal, September 25

Amid speculation that the INLD might join the INDIA alliance group, key parties of the group, including the Congress, stayed away from INLD’s “Samaan Diwas” rally held in Kaithal to mark the 110th birth anniversary of former Deputy PM Chaudhary Devi Lal today.

Instead of regional heavyweights like Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, senior leaders KC Tyagi and Derek O’Brien, respectively, addressed the rally.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, who were expected to attend the rally, also did not arrive. However, the reasons behind their absence is not clear.

NC leader and former CM of J&K Farooq Abdullah, SAD’s Sukhbir Balal, RLD’s Shahid Siddiqui, and other leaders attended the rally. Senior BJP leader Birender Singh, who addressed the rally, said he had come to pay tributes to Devi Lal by rising above the party lines. He exhorted political parties to leave their differences to celebrate the birth anniversary of people like Tau Devi Lal. Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Ravan also paid tributes to Devi Lal and promised to raise the voices of farmers and economically weaker sections. All leaders gave a call for opposition unity to uproot the BJP from power.

Meanwhile, the former CM and INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala picked the party’s lone MLA in the Haryana Assembly and his son Abhay Singh Chautala as his political heir for the CM’s post. “I hand over Abhay to you, strengthen his hands, and make him successful. If he fails to fulfil your aspirations, I will be there to pull his ears,” he said.

Chautala also promised an old-age pension of Rs 7,500 per month if voted to power. “We will also provide a cylinder and Rs 1,100 to each household every month if voted to power,” he claimed. He also promised free education and health facilities for students and assured jobs to all unemployed youths, besides Rs 21,000 per month as unemployment allowance.

Abhay appealed to the leaders who had left the party to return. He said the INLD had played a vital role in bringing about a change in the past, and now it would usher in change in the political scenario. “I will continue my yatra to oust the BJP-JJP from power. I will start my yatra from October 15 and will visit all villages that I could not visit during the first phase of the yatra,” he said.