Dushyant Singh Chautala has achieved a great feat in just seven years of his political career. Many may attribute it to his lineage, some may call it sheer luck but he has proved them all wrong by fighting against all odds.
India has witnessed a plethora of political heirs in Parliament but very few could make their mark. Dushyant entered the Parliament after defeating a political dark horse and a two-term serving MP Kuldeep Bishnoi, son of Congress stalwart Bhajan Lal. At 25, he made a record of becoming the youngest MP. During his tenure as Hisar’s MP, he stunned fellow members by reporting 84 per cent attendance and an active participation in 228 debates within the House. The two facts that prove his seriousness about raising people’s voices — he raised more than 630 questions in the House whereas other leaders of the state collectively could not ask even 250 questions; he alone introduced 20 private member bills whereas other MPs of the state could only move three. These figures speak a lot about his deep concern on the rooted issues pertaining to Haryana.
In December 2017, the Central Government took a decision to amend an act with respect to the treatment of tractor as a commercial vehicle and not an agricultural vehicle. This meant that farmers would have to pay toll tax at every toll booth across India. There was no voice of protest by any MP, who otherwise represented farmers’ community or whose stand in politics is based on farmers’ voting. To protest against tweaking of rules relating to the Motor Vehicles Act, Dushyant decided to ride a tractor to the Parliament. His efforts caught the eye of the media nationwide which led to a major uproar in the Parliament. Eventually, the Central Government was forced to withdraw this amendment.
The year 2018 saw a simmering power struggle in Indian National Lok Dal which led to the expulsion of Ajay Chautala’s sons Dushyant Chautala and Digvijay Chautala from the Haryana-based party. With just a year left for Haryana’s Assembly elections, this was a political turmoil, which saw a split of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and an emergence of a new political outfit — Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), founded by Dushyant. With a 10-month timeline to the Assembly elections, many political pundits termed it as a childish move. Also, there was speculation that it was an aspirational war for the CM candidate. But those who knew him closely were aware that he has joined to change the old political style which had continually annoyed many in the party. Dushyant was a ‘mood of Haryana’, he was a people’s man and he wanted to discard sycophants within the party. There were issues pertaining to assertion and dominance of a senior leader, which were disliked by party workers, the media and even the bureaucracy. This became more evident after a large rally at Gohana, where party workers demanded his name to be announced as a candidate for CM.
What surprised many is that he took a risk when he affirmed to form his own political outfit, rather than getting into a legal battle with his uncle Abhay Chautala over holding the reins of INLD. He did not contest for securing a party symbol like Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, who had a strong rift with his uncle over “Jhanda-Danda” of party. JJP threw its hat in Haryana’s politics with a new symbol and a new name. Many termed JJP as ‘group of boys’, ‘students wing’ but Dushyant went ahead quietly and worked day and night on the ground. He even left his house and stayed in villages at his party workers’ houses, played cricket with local boys and focussed on social media outreach through a dedicated team. Even while travelling in a car, he conducted ‘Facebook live sessions’ to interact with the youth of Haryana. When he visits villages, he is aware of each booth level worker of his party, he calls them by their names, eats with them, hears them and understands the ground issues. This strategy has created an everlasting loyalty towards him. This trait of knowing booth level workers’ names is inherited from his grandfather Om Prakash Chautala, a five term Haryana CM.
JJP decided to go alone in Haryana’s Assembly elections. While leaders of other parties such as INLD, AAP, BSP were cobbling pre-election gathbandhans in party offices, Dushyant was doing five political rallies in a day covering around 500 km per day. His day started from 7 am and ended by 12 midnight. Dushyant decided to contest in one of the difficult constituencies, Uchana Kalan, held by the then BJP MLA Prem Lata, wife of former Union Minister and Haryana strongman Birender Singh.
The election result on October 24, 2019 stunned every political pundit as JJP won with ten seats and emerged in the kingmaker’s role. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ended up winning only 40 seats in the 90-member Assembly. BJP sought the support of Dushyant’s JJP to be able to form a stable government in power.
Some quick moves and a meeting with Union Home Minister and BJP president Amit Shah sealed the deal and the BJP-JJP coalition was formed with a respectable power sharing formula. Dushyant’s hard bargaining got him the Deputy CM’s post along with significant ministries. The top leadership of BJP was deeply impressed by his impeccable performance within a short span of 10 months. He settled the debate on the legacy of former deputy Prime Minister and Jat stalwart Devi Lal. At 31, he stands foremost among Jat leaders of India.
After resuming office, his main focus was to work on pre poll manifesto promises made by him. Among many one of the important and tough promise to fulfill was the reservation for youth of Haryana in employment opportunities. This was challenging as being industries minister he had to balance on industrial investment and jobs for locals. On July 9, 2020, The Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Ordinance, 2020 and 75 per cent reservation became a reality after passing through Haryana’s Cabinet. This will soon be tabled in the assembly.
Since allotment of his official residence and party office in Chandigarh, each day is dedicated to a Janta Darbar, where people from across the state come and meet him for their concerns and he patiently listens to them to resolve their issues.
Those who know Indian politics know that he is going to play a long innings and it is just the beginning.
(The author, Prateek Som, is the practising Advocate in Supreme Court of India and National Spokesperson of Jannayak Janta Party.)
