Chautala brothers lock horns for Rori assembly seat

The family feud in Haryana's most prominent political family has spilled out in the open with Pratap Singh Chautala deciding to contesting against his brother Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala.

Both brothers have filed their nominations for the Rori seat of Sirsa district.

While the elder Chautala has filed his nomination from Rori in addition to the Narwana seat of Jind district on behalf of his Indian National Lok Dal, Pratap has entered the fray as an independent.

This will be the second consecutive occasion for the Chautala brothers to lock horns at Rori, once represented by their legendary father, the late Chaudhary Devi Lal.

Chautala defeated another younger brother Ranjit Singh, who had contested the Rori seat as a Congress party nominee, in the 2000 provincial polls.

Ranjit has been awaiting re-entry into the Congress party after his brief association with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Pratap's attempts to grab the Congress nomination failed after the party opted to field old warhorse Jagdish Nehra, who has won the seat twice and finished second on three occasions.

Sources close to the Chautala family, while describing the development as 'unfortunate' say Pratap may not be able to make much of a difference. "Pratap is close to Nehra and the fact is not lost to anyone here that he has been promoted by Nehra to enter the fray as an independent to cut into the family's traditional vote bank.

"Anyone who votes on the name of Tau (Devi Lal) will still opt to vote for Chautala preferring him over Pratap," a close associate of the family said over phone from Sirsa, the home district of Chautalas.

Both brothers filed their nominations for the Rori seat on Monday, the last date for filing of nominations to elect the 90-member state legislative assembly. Polling is scheduled in the state on February 3.

This is the third time Om Prakash Chautala is seeking election from Rori. He won the seat in 1996 defeating Nehra to become Haryana chief minister before locking horns with youngest of the three brothers Ranjit in 2000 snap polls, which Chautala opted for two years ahead of time.

Barring the 2000 polls when the Congress opted to field Ranjit Singh, Nehra has been a constant figure in the fray from Rori. He defeated Pratap Singh by a handsome margin in 1982.

Nehra, however, lost the seat to Ranjit Singh by a huge margin in 1987 while Devi Lal's political career was on upswing.

Chautala had opted to resign the Rori seat in 2000 preferring to represent Narwana in the state assembly. His younger son Abhay Chautala won the seat in the by-election. Abhay has been declined nomination this time after Chautala decided against nominating any member of his family to counter the opposition allegation about promoting his sons in politics.

Rori witnessed heavy polling whenever someone from Devi Lal's family contests from here indicating the level of political awareness of voters of the constituency.

Generations in politics

- Twice deputy prime minister of India, late Chaudhary Devi Lal, who belonged to Chautala village of Sirsa district, had four sons Om Prakash Chautala, Pratap Singh Chautala, Ranjit Singh and Jagdish Singh Chautala.

- Jagdish, the youngest son, died young.

- Om Prakash has been Haryana Chief Minister four times and is seeking a third consecutive term in office.

- Om Prakash has two sons, Ajay Singh and Abhay Singh. Ajay became a member of the Rajasthan assembly during Devi Lal's lifetime and is a Member of the Rajya Sabha, while Abhay, the sitting lawmaker from Rori, is not contesting.

- Om Prakash Chautala's younger brothers fell out with him during Devi Lal's lifetime. While Pratap was a member of the state assembly, Ranjit was a Haryana minister in Devi Lal's cabinet and even became an MP.