INLD chief Chautala expels grandsons from party

Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 2

Less than a month after the ruckus at INLD’s Gohana rally exposed the feud within the Chautala clan, party patriarch Om Prakash Chautala on Friday expelled Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala and his brother Digvijay from the primary membership. Dushyant also loses the post of leader of the INLD parliamentary board.

Dushyant and Digvijay, the sons of Chautala’s elder son Ajay Singh, who is serving a jail sentence along with his father in the JBT recruitment scam, were served show-cause notices and suspended on October 10 for “anti-party activities”.

The decision to expel them “with immediate effect” comes at a time when Chautala is in jail. Their father Ajay Singh will be out on parole for 14 days on November 5. Dushyant’s mother Naina Singh, who is Dabwali MLA, earlier this week had said: “My sons never demanded any post, nor desire to be CM... In a democratic set-up, it is the people who have the right to elect their leader.” She had held a party faction responsible for her sons’ suspension. 

At the October 7 rally, slogans demanding that Dushyant be named the CM candidate were raised repeatedly while their uncle Abhay Singh’s speech was interrupted, exposing the war within the Indian National Lok Dal. Subsequently, a notice was issued to Dushyant and Digvijay (who headed the dissolved student wing) for indiscipline and spreading disaffection against the leadership.

Sources said Chautala had conveyed to the party that he needed no evidence to initiate action as he himself was witness to the unruly scenes at Gohana where his speech was interrupted too. Despite that, he had referred the matter to the disciplinary committee, which now has held the brothers guilty.

“It was not an easy decision. But Chautala decided to adhere to the principles of party founder Ch Devi Lal, for whom the party was bigger than any individual,” said party sources.

Dushyant did not take phone calls. But Digvijay said: “Papa (Ajay Singh) alone will speak on the matter  when he is out on parole.”