Om Prakash Chautala conviction jolt to INLD

Tribune News Service

Pradeep Sharma

Chandigarh, May 27

The conviction of former Chief Minister and INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala by a Delhi CBI Court has delivered another jolt to the INLD which is currently struggling to remain relevant in Haryana politics.

In fact, the organisational revamp of the INLD would be adversely affected in the absence of the four-time Chief Minister, especially in the run-up to the 2024 Assembly elections.

Since his release after the completion of his jail term in the JBT teachers’ recruitment scam in June last year, Chautala has been making desperate attempts to revive the INLD which has fallen on bad days after its worst performance in the 2019 Assembly elections.

Chautala had been touring the state to woo back the INLD’s traditional vote bank — farmers—in a bid to revive the party founded by his father and former Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal. Now, his jailing in the disproportionate assets case will give another setback to the party’s efforts to bounce back in the state politics.

With AAP expecting a surge in its popularity post-Punjab win, the INLD’s revival will be an uphill task in the absence of its supremo. Now, the task of reviving the party would fall on Chautala’s son, Abhay Chautala, who is party’s lone legislator in the Haryana Assembly.

All major political parties, especially the JJP, can now heave a sigh of relief as Chautala had been flagging their various “acts of omission and commission” since his release last year.

The 87-year-old leader has been a bitter critic of the JJP, which his elder son Ajay Chautala had formed after parting ways from the INLD in 2018. After the 2019 Assembly poll, the JJP, which won 10 seats, cobbled together an alliance with the BJP. The INLD had won only one seat.

Tough time for party

Since his release after the completion of his jail term in the JBT teachers’ recruitment scam in June last year, OP Chautala has been making desperate attempts to revive the INLD which has fallen on bad days after its worst performance in 2019 Assembly elections

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