Haryana: With father, grandfather in jail, Dushyant faces acid test

New Delhi, Apr 8: With both father Ajay Chautala and grandfather

behind bars,

candidate from

Dushyant Chautala, an alumnus of Lawrence School, Sanawar, is facing an acid test and now banking on help from his uncle and other family members to reach out to voters.

26-year-old Dushyant is making his debut in Parliament election at a time when he is faced with humongous task of reviving the Indian National Lok Dal, founded by his great grandfather Devi Lal, in the absence of his father and grandfather, both in jail in connection with the junior basic trained (JBT) teachers' recruitment scam.

Dushyant, who graduated from California State University and is pusuing an MBA degree (global management) from Regents College in London, is up against sitting MP and Haryana Janhit Congress candidate Kuldeep Bishnoi, the younger son of late Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, besides Congress' Sampat Singh, MLA from Nalwa segment, AAP's Yudhbir Singh Khyalia, the bureaucrat-turned-politician.

Phool Singh Sheokand (CPM) and Mange Ram Verma (BSP) are also in the fray. "This is the first election of my life and my father and grandfather, both are in jail," says Dushyant, alleging it to be a "conspiracy" of the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government in Haryana. "It is very true that at this moment, I am missing them very much, but making poll strategies under their guidance," he adds.

His uncle Abhay Chautala and some other members of the family are helping in Dushyant's election campaign. Although INLD is out of power in Haryana since the past decade, Devi Lal's Chautala family is still considered very powerful in the state's politics with a very strong Jat backing.

Asked about his role model in politics, Dushyant told PTI, "My own family remains very combative in politics, so I never feel any desire to look beyond it. Certainly my great grand father Devi Lal is my role model. I am also very much influenced by my grandfather Om Prakash Chautala, who took the INLD to new heights."

Devi Lal was chief minister of the state twice -- 1977-79 and 1987-89. Later he became deputy prime minister 1989-91 in the VP Singh government.

In his nomination papers, Dushyant mentioned movable assets worth over Rs 9 crore and immovable assets of over Rs 26 crore. Dushyant says he has a huge task of "taking the INLD forward, a party which was established by my great grandfather to serve the people and the farmers of this state".

He says party cadres remain the base of any political party and INLD is fortunate in this matter. Dushyant stays connected with party supporters through his Facebook and Twitter accounts and waits for their feedback on issues concerning the state.

Asked about INLD's poll prospects, he exuded confidence saying, "Definitely, we will win all the 10 Lok Sabha seats." Hisar is the smallest Lok Sabha constituency in Haryana, though it is spread over an entire district and parts of Bhiwani and Jind districts.

The constituency has a total 15,17,606 voters out of which 8,26,810 are men and 6,90,796 women.

PTI