Expelled INLD MP launches new party in Haryana

Expelled INLD leader and sitting Member of Parliament (MP) from Hisar Dushyant Chautala on Sunday launched the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) from a rally in Jind town in Haryana.

Dushyant is the grandson of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) national president Om Prakash Chautala, who is currently lodged in Tihar prison.

No announcement was, however, made on who would head the new party.

Dushyant had won the Hisar parliamentary seat on the INLD symbol, but he was expelled from the party on November 2 for "anti-party activities".

Addressing the rally in Jind, which was attended by thousands of people, Dushyant said his fight is on principles and that the new party would fight for the rights of people of Haryana.

The new party, which has made the split in the INLD and the Chautala family official, has been formed at a time when general elections are three-four months away and Assembly elections in Haryana are likely to be held in October next year.

Amid a show of strength by the two warring Chautala brothers, elder brother Ajay Singh Chautala had on November 17 announced the floating of a new political party.

Ajay Chautala had been expelled from the INLD by party supremo and his father Om Prakash Chautala last month.

Ajay's younger brother Abhay Singh Chautala, who controls the INLD as its general secretary, said on Sunday that the split would not affect the INLD's political fortunes.

Ajay Chautala is also serving jail term in the Tihar prison and had come out recently on parole.

The infighting within the first family of the INLD, which is Haryana's main opposition party, has led to the split in the party.

Dushyant and his younger brother, Digvijay Chautala, who were both expelled from the party on November 2, are the great-grandsons of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal.

The action against them followed as both youth leaders and their supporters tried to project Dushyant as the chief ministerial face in Haryana for Assembly polls next year.

O.P. Chautala and his elder son, Ajay, were convicted in the JBT (junior basic teacher) recruitment scam in January 2013. Both were sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Delhi.

The father and son have been barred from contesting elections due to the conviction. The INLD has been managed by Chautala's younger son Abhay Singh Chautala, who has been the Leader of Opposition in the Haryana Assembly since then.

--IANS

js/nir