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Who is Abhay Singh Chautala
A Member of the Haryana Legislative Assembly representing the Ellenabad constituency, Abhay Singh Chautala is the leading face of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in the state. He was the leader of Opposition in the state Assembly before Bhupinder Singh Hooda took over.
Abhay Singh Chautala is a grandson of former deputy prime minister Chaudhary Devi Lal and son of former CM of Haryana Om Prakash Chautala. Born in a family of politicians, Chautala started his political career by contesting a village panchayat election and then serving as Upsarpanch. In 2000, Chautala stood from the Rori constituency and defeated Ranjit Singh of the Congress party with a record margin of over 22,000 votes.
During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he was lauded for leading his party and winning two seats despite a strong wave in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its leader Narendra Modi. Now, he is leading the INLD in the 2019 state elections.
Abhay Chautala’s father Om Prakash Chautala and brother Ajay Chautala have been in jail, serving a 10-year sentence in connection with a junior basic teacher recruitment scam.
Until last year, the INLD had been the main Opposition party in the state. But a split in the Chautala clan has weakened the party and most of its MLAs have been switching to other parties.
In the absence of senior leaders, it will be interesting to see how Abhay Chautala leads his party in the face of the Modi juggernaut, split in the Chautala family, and the Congress challenge.
A sports enthusiast, Abhay Singh Chautala has played volleyball at the national level for several years. He has headed a number of sports organisations, such as the Indian Olympic Association, Indian Boxing Federation. He is credit with bringing a new sports policy for Haryana which helped boost sports in the state.