Om Prakash Chautala - File pic
Days after a group of youths created ruckus at the Gohana rally attended by Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) president Om Prakash Chautala’s son and grandsons, the party chief on Thursday dissolved the organisations’s student and youth wings.
The development reflects a clear rift within the Chautala family which became evident when Abhay Singh Chautala, younger son of senior Chautala, was booed during the October 7 Gohana rally.
Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala, son of Ajay Singh Chautala, went ahead with his speech at the event and in fact, he was even cheered by the crowd
Ajay is the elder son of INLD chief.
Ajay’s sons—Dushyant and Digvijay—head the party’ youth and student wings, respectively.
By dissolving the party’s student and youth wings, 83-year-old senior Chautala has thrown his weight behind his younger son, say political observers.
“Om Prakash Chautala in his capacity as INLD’s national president, has dissolved the youth wing of the party and the national and state units of Indian National Students Organisation (INSO)--party’s student wing,” a party statement said.
“Both wings of the party were found to be lacking in discipline and commitment to the ideals of INLD. While the youth wing failed to play its role during the Gohana rally of October 7, the INSO was found indulging in blatant anti-party activities. It is also accused of entering into a conspiracy with anti-party forces to disrupt the Gohana rally and smear the name of INLD,” it said.
The development comes at a time when student union polls are taking place in the state after a gap of 22 years and the Lok Sabha elections are not far off.
Reacting to the news, Digvijay Chautala said INSO cannot be dissolved by the INLD chief.
“Ajay Singh Chautala, who is the founder member of the INSO, or the body’s national executive, can only dissolve the organisation. Though ideologically we are with the INLD, but the party cannot take a decision to dissolve INSO,” he told PTI.
Asked to comment on the developments within the party, Digvijay said, “A lot of people will like us to comment at this stage, but we won’t..”.
Political observers have also linked the developments within the Haryana’s main opposition party to a “succession war” between Abhay and his nephew Dushyant Chautala.
Ajay Singh along with his father O P Chautala are currently serving jail term in the teachers’ recruitment scam.
The INLD president also effected organisational restructuring of the party.
The district party unit presidents of Hisar and Dadri were changed. Satbir Sisaye replaced Rajendra Litani as Hisar party unit chief and Vijay Panchgama replaced Naresh Dwarka in Dadri, the statement said.
Ex-MLA Nishan Singh was relieved of the responsibility of convening ‘Kisan Cell’ of the party. He has been replaced by another former MLA Kali Ram, it said.
Senior Chautala also announced new office bearers of the party’s national body.
While he remains the national president, Anant Ram Tanwar, Sadhu Ram Chaudhary, Narayan Parsad Aggarwal, Kumari Phoolwati, Ashwani Dutta and Ram Bhagat Gupta were appointed as party vice presidents, the statement said.
R S Chaudhary will be the secretary general of the party’s national unit, while K C Bangar will be the national spokesman of the party, it said.
“The Members of Parliament, Leader of Opposition in Haryana Assembly and state president of INLD will be members of the party’s national body by virtue of their status,” the party statement said.
The new parliamentary board of the party will have O P Chautala as the chairman and state unit president Ashok Arora, B D Dhalia, Anju Singh and Kamal Nagpal as its members, it added.
(With PTI inputs)
