Bansi Lal's family feud takes new turn

Chandigarh, Sep 20: The family feud of former Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal over his inheritance took a new turn with former BCCI chief Ranbir Singh Mahendra, elder son of the late leader, offering to build a house for Ms Kiran Chaudhary, widow of his younger brother, in lieu for vacating the ancestral house.

Ms Kiran Chaudhary, who is Tourism Minister in the Haryana government, however dismissed the offer as ''ridiculous.'' Her husband Surender Singh, who was Agrticulture Minister in the Hooda government, had died in a helicopter crash last year along with another state minister and steel magnate Om Prakash Jindal.

Talking to reporters in the media lobby of the Haryana assembly, Mr Mahendra reiterated that he planned to build a memorial at the family's ancestral house in Bhiwani and if Ms Chaudhary vacated the residence, where Mr Bansi Lal lived before his death, he would build another house for her at a plot owned by his younger brother.

Reacting to the offer, Ms Chaudhary told UNI the proposal was so ridiculous ''I even don't know how to respond to it.

It's like someone telling you that you vacate your house and I will build another one for you.'' She also alleged that ever since her husband's death, Mr Mahendra had been harrasing her family for one reason or the other.

''He has been nurturing an innate sense of jealousy and enmity for my husband's political success and carries the same for us after late Surender Singh's death,'' Ms Chaudhary charged.

Mr Mahendra, who alleged on the floor of the assembly on Monday that his mother had been subjected to ''house arrest'' at her Bhiwani residence, said there was no improvement in the situation so far. When his attention was drawn to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda's statement that Mr Bansi's Lal's widow Vidya Devi had been provided protection and security, Mr Mahendra said his mother needed no protection in her own house.

He said his mother was living on the ground floor of the Bhiwani house while the first floor was occupied by Ms Kiran Chaudhary.

Ms Chaudhary, on the other hand, claimed that she maintained her office on the ground floor even as she had also accomodated her mother-in-law therein.

To a question, Mr Mahendra said it was only after Surender Singh's death that Ms Chaudhary started living in the house.

Ms Chaudhary countered his claim by saying that Mr Mahendra too never lived in the house he was laying his claims on to build a memorial.

''If he is that keen to set up a memorial to presrve the memory of Mr Bansi Lal, why does not he vacate his house in Bhiwani for that purpose,'' she wondred.

However, Mr Mahendra maintained that the house where his mother and Ms Chaudhary were living at present was the one which had been ''linked'' to the memory of his father.

UNI