Uchana Kalan set for another face-off between rival families

The two main Haryana Assembly candidates in this constituency in Jind district do not represent just their parties, but their families as well.

Current BJP MLA Prem Lala is the wife of former Union minister and Rajya Sabha MP Birender Singh. Dushyant Chautala of the Jannayak Janta Party is from the now-divided political clan that has produced the likes of Devi Lal and Om Prakash Chautala.

Some say the October 21 assembly contest between the two Jat leaders --former deputy prime minister Devi Lal's great grandson and peasant leader Sir Chhotu Ram's granddaughter-in-law will -- go down to the wire, just like the other elections here in recent years.

Prem Lata had defeated Dushyant Chautala in the 2014 assembly polls in Uchana Kalan, when he entered the fray despite being a sitting MP of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) the party he broke away from only last year.

Her winning margin then was just 7,480 votes.

But she had avenged husband Birender Singh's defeat at the hands of Dushyant's grandfather Om Prakash Chautala in 2009, the year the senior Chautala shifted to Uchana Kalan after his Narwana seat was turned into a scheduled caste constituency.

He had defeated Birender Singh in his own bastion by an even slimmer margin of 621 votes.

"The outcome in this constituency is difficult to predict now," says Narendra from Palwan village. "It will be a keenly watched contest."
As Prem Lata and Dushyant Chautala trade charges, he says, The BJP destroyed the social fabric of Haryana and the party should be taught a lesson."
A new hospital, a government college, a grain market and a Kendriya Vidyalaya have also come up, she says, adding, A lot more needs to be done."