Many MLAs backing me, claims Ajay Chautala as split looms large over INLD

The INLD appears to be heading for a split with senior leader Ajay Singh Chautala Monday coming out in support of his expelled sons and claiming that several sitting and former MLAs of the party were backing him.

Released from Delhi's Tihar jail on two weeks parole, Ajay, the elder son of former chief minister and INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala, held a show of strength at the official residence of his son and Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala in New Delhi where he declared that the party was not "anyone's personal fiefdom".

Ajay threw his weight behind his sons Dushyant and Digvijay, who were expelled from the party Friday and launched veiled attacks on his younger brother Abhay, as the ongoing power struggle between members of the Chautala clan intensified.

"Now we will not seek anything from anyone, it will be a fight. We will create such a condition in front of Chautala sahib that he will be compelled to ask Dushyant to return to the party," he said in his addressing to the INLD workers.

"Chautala sahib use to say one does not get rights from begging, but by snatching," Ajay said referring to one of his father's speeches.

Dushyant and Digvijay Chautala were accused of "indiscipline, hooliganism and spreading disaffection" against the party leadership during the birth celebrations of former deputy Prime Minister and INLD founder Chaudhary Devi Lal in Gohana on October 7.

Their ouster was endorsed by Chautala senior, however, Dabwali MLA and mother of Dushyant and Digvijay, Naina Chautala had Thursday accused some people of conspiring to throw their family out of the party.

Without naming his younger brother and party MLA Abhay Chautala, Ajay said, "We will not allow the party to be controlled by one individual."