On a day when two old warhorses — Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress — put up a decent fight against the BJP, one young man, Dushyant Chautala, made a decent debut for his fledgling party, the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), claiming the legacy of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal.
Mr. Dushyant, grandson of former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and son of Ajay Chautala, plunged into politics in his twenties after his grandfather was convicted in a case of irregularities in teacher recruitment.
En route pursuing a Master’s in business in the U.S., he found himself instead preparing to contest from Hissar in the 2014 Lok Sabha election at just 26. He won that election in the face of the Modi wave.
An alumnus of St. Lawrence School, Sanawar, Mr. Chautala then got into a turf war over leadership of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in the next five years with his uncle Abhay Chautala.
Matters came to a head and as Mr. Abhay dissolved the student wing of the INLD, the INSO, Mr. Dushyant announced the formation of the JJP on December 9, 2018. The first outing of that party was the Jind byelection in January when it came second, pushing the Congress to the third spot.
Creditable showing
While the party did not fare well in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, with the BJP sweeping all 10 seats from Haryana, Mr. Dushyant’s showing in the Assembly polls has demonstrated that the question of who is the legatee of late Devi Lal as a “farmer leader” among the Jat community has been settled.
With 10 Assembly seats in a hung House, Mr. Dushyant is claiming to be kingmaker and will be in Delhi on Friday.
He might yet find himself out in the cold if the BJP persuades enough Independents to extend support, but his political journey as solo leader of a strong regional outfit has made a good start.
