Bhai-bhai face-off, Chautala family splits

A family feud within the powerful Chautalas, who dominate Haryana by holding on to the legacy of INLD patriarch and former deputy PM Chaudhary Devi Lal, is getting ugly by the day.

Former Haryana chief minister O P Chautala’s two estranged sons, ex-MP Ajay and leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Abhay, have parted ways on an unpleasant note. The ensuing bypoll in Jind, which is turning out to be a bitter face-off between the Chautala family members, has escalated the rift even further.

Abhay Chautala has announced that he will have no ties with the family of his elder brother Ajay. Both Ajay and his father OP Chautala are in jail serving a 10-year jail term in a corruption case.

Ajay Chautala and his two sons, Dushyant and Digvijay, who were thrown out of the INLD by the senior Chautala, have floated a new political outfit — Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) which is now up against the INLD and others in the poll fray.

The AAP has announced support to JJP-supported candidate Digvijay. This apparently has led to the cancellation of Chautala senior's parole by the AAP-led Delhi government which did not want the jailed leader out of prison to campaign for the INLD candidate. An angry OP Chautala retaliated by calling his two grandsons, Dushyant and Digvijay, "traitors."

Abhay raised havoc by saying that his sister-in-law — his elder brother Ajay’s wife Naina, an MLA — and his nephews were responsible for the split in the family and the party.

Naina Chautala broke down on Tuesday while addressing a gathering in a village. Teary-eyed, she sought support for her son saying her family was isolated as part of a conspiracy. More of the "saas-bahu" melodrama unfolded. OP Chautala’s ailing wife Sneh Lata, from a bed in a hospital in Gurugram, "cursed" her grandsons. “Nobody should have children like Dushyant and Digvijay,” she said.

Jind has turned into a fierce four-cornered contest between JJP’s Digvijay, Congress' Randeep Surjewala, BJP’s Krishan Middha, and INLD candidate Umed Redhu.