Chautala family feud echoes in Haryana Assembly

The Chautala family feud echoed in Haryana Assembly on Thursday, with ruling BJP and the opposition Congress taking potshots at the INLD after its split.

Notably, main opposition INLD's four of the 17 MLAs have not resigned from their parent party and are supporting fledgling Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) formed after its split.

The issue cropped up during Zero Hour when Congress members sought time from Speaker Kanwar Pal to raise some vital matters.

As some Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) members too joined in with their demands, Health Minister Anil Vij while pointing towards them, said in a sarcastic tone, "we have heard that your party has split.

Vij then pointed towards the Speaker and sought to know whether he had any formal information about INLD's split.

As INLD MLA Naina Chautala too got up and spoke a few words, Vij while addressing the Chair, said, "Sir, she (Naina) has accepted on the floor of the House that INLD has split, therefore, arrangement of separate seats for them (Naina and three other MLAs supporting JJP) should be made.

However, the Speaker told Vij, "they have not given anything in writing yet.

Congress' Raghubir Singh Kadian demanded voting should be held to decide whether the rebel INLD MLAs still hold confidence in the Leader of Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala.

Abhay was not present inside the House when the BJP and Congress members were taking potshots.

Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda also joined the issue.

When one member (Naina) is saying on the floor of the House that they have formed a separate party (JJP), then how Leader of Opposition (Abhay) can continue to enjoy that status, voting for this should be held to decide, said Hooda.

In the 90-member Assembly, while ruling BJP has 48 MLAs after the recent Jind bypoll win, both Congress and INLD have 17 members each, one each member belongs to the SAD and BSP, five are Independents while one seat fell vacant after demise of INLD's Jaswinder Singh Sandhu recently.

Notably, the JJP came into existence in last December following a vertical split in the INLD, after a bitter power struggle between Ajay Chautala and Abhay Singh Chautala, the grandsons of Devi Lal who had founded the INLD.

Ajay and his two sons, Digvijay and Dushyant Chautala, were expelled from the INLD. The Dabwali MLA Naina is Ajay's wife.

Ajay is serving a jail term in connection with the teachers recruitment scam in Haryana.