Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) MLA Naina Chautala (L), and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate Sunaina Chautala (R)
Credit: X/@SunainaChautala, PTI
Hisar: The stage is set for a riveting electoral battle in Haryana's Hisar Lok Sabha constituency where three members of the influential Chautala family, split along political lines, have locked horns.
Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) MLA Naina Chautala, and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate Sunaina Chautala -- the two 'bahus' or daughters-in-law of the Chautala clan -- and BJP's Ranjit Singh Chautala are pitted against each other.
Ranjit Chautala is the brother of the fathers-in-law of Sunaina Chautala and Naina Chautala -- a relationship sometimes referred to as 'chacha sasur'.
The Congress has fielded three-time MP and veteran leader Jai Prakash from the seat.
Naina Chautala (57) is the wife of JJP chief Ajay Singh Chautala and mother of former Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala.
INLD Women Wing general secretary Sunaina Chautala (47) is the wife of party leader Abhay Singh Chautala’s cousin Ravi Chautala. Ravi Chautala is the son of INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala’s younger brother late Partap Singh Chautala.
While both the INLD-JJP candidates claimed to do more for the welfare of the state's farmers -- a sizeable voting group -- the BJP nominee expressed confidence that the development work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi would ensure the party's victory on all 10 seats.
Sunaina Chautala said the voters will confront her BJP and JJP rivals on the issue of the farmers' protest that went on for 13 months against the now-repealed farm laws.
"Under the BJP rule, farmers, Anganwadi and ASHA workers, employees, and sarpanches were on the path of agitation in support of their demands," said Sunaina Chautala.
The BJP and the JJP had formed an alliance in Haryana after the 2019 Assembly polls. It ended in March 2024 as chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar resigned to make way for a new BJP government led by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini.
She also questioned the BJP candidate's claims of development in the state, saying it was not visible on the ground. It has become clear that the BJP-JJP only want power, she added.
Sunaina Chautala pointed out that Abhay Chautala, who was the lone MLA of his party, resigned from the assembly amid the farmers' stir in support of them.
She said her party is following the principles and carrying forward the ideology of the late Jat patriarch Chaudhary Devi Lal.
On the other hand, Naina Chautala said everyone knew who the real well-wisher of the farmers was as she asserted that her son Dushyant Chautala, as the deputy CM, ensured timely payment to farmers after timely procurement of their produce.
Ranjit Chautala, meanwhile, did not seem to be perturbed with his relatives entering the poll fray and said it was their 'democratic right'.
He expressed confidence that the BJP would win all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana just like in the previous general elections and that Narendra Modi would become the prime minister for the third time.
"During the last 10 years, the prime minister has taken the country on the path of development and in his third term, this pace will further accelerate. Haryana too has witnessed development during the past nine-and-a-half years," Ranjit Chautala told PTI.
Ranjit Chautala (78) resigned as Independent MLA in March giving up his membership from the Rania segment in Sirsa district after he joined the BJP, which nominated him from the Hisar seat. He continues to be a Minister in the Nayab Singh Saini-led BJP government.
He is former deputy prime minister Devi Lal's son and the brother of INLD chief and former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala.
This is not for first time that members of the Chautala clan have crossed swords as more than two decades ago, Ranjit Chautala -- nominated by the Congress -- had contested from the Rori assembly seat against his brother Om Prakash Chautala.
Similarly, Ajay Chautala and Ravi Chautala have also fought against each other from Dabwali.
The polling for all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana is scheduled to be held in the sixth phase on May 25.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Naina and Ajay Chautala's son Dushyant, who was then sitting MP from Hisar, had lost to BJP's Brijendra Singh. Singh recently joined the Congress.
Of the 10 seats it is contesting in the state, the Congress has named nine candidates, including Jai Prakash from Hisar. The Kurukshetra seat is being fought by AAP, a constituent of the opposition's INDIA bloc.
Jai Prakash, popularly known as 'JP', is a three-term MP from Hisar. He also remained a MLA from Barwala Assembly seat in Hisar district in 2000 and from Kalayat in Kaithal in 2014.
Making his electoral debut, he won the Hisar Lok Sabha seat as the Janata Dal candidate in 1989 when he also served as the Union Minister. In 1996, he won from Hisar on a Haryana Vikas Party ticket. Later, he joined the Congress and won the 2000 Assembly poll from Barwala. In 2004, he again got elected as the Hisar MP.
"People are fed up with the BJP ruled and a Congress wave is sweeping the state," claimed Jai Prakash. Former chief minister late Bhajan Lal had won Hisar seat as Haryana Janhit Congress candidate in 2009, his son Kuldeep Bishnoi won the bypoll after his father's demise in 2011 and in 2014 Dushyant wrested the seat as INLD member then. Bishnoi is now with the BJP.
The parliamentary constituency covers the entire Hisar district and parts of Jind district as well.
In the Hisar Lok Sabha constituency, there are 9,52,598 male voters, 8,32,569 female voters, and 11 transgender voters. The Jats are the dominant caste in Hisar with one-third of total votes.
After Haryana came into existence as a separate state in 1966, the Congress won the seat on five occasions. But it has not tasted victory during the past two decades.