The Hindu : Chautala in no mood to relent

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 05, 2004

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Other States - Haryana

Chautala in no mood to relent

By Rajesh Ahuja

CHANDIGARH, FEB.4 . Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party high command appears to be dithering over whether to continue the alliance with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) for the ensuing Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, the INLD supremo and Haryana Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautala, seems to have broken his transitory `silence' and not only launched a scathing attack against State-level BJP leaders but also challenged the BJP `satraps' to fight the elections independently in Haryana.

According to political observers, Mr.Chautala seems to have sent a clear signal to the BJP leadership that he would not succumb to pressure to hold the Vidhan Sabha polls simultaneously with the Lok Sabha as a condition for renewing the BJP-INLD alliance in Haryana. According to sources close to the INLD chief, the Assembly polls would be held as scheduled early next year. And the utterances of Mr.Chautala at a media interaction at Kaithal last evening clearly indicate that Mr.Chautala is in no mood to `relent' and he would rather view the outcome of the Lok Sabha polls as a mini-referendum on his performance so that any shortcomings could be rectified prior to the Assembly polls. The thinking amongst the INLD top brass is that the party does not require the "crutches'' of the BJP as the people would vote for the developmental activities carried out by Mr.Chautala and not on any national issues or slogans.

According to Mr.Chautala, the BJP was a national party and was free to contest polls independently. The INLD was not hankering after the continuation of the alliance and the ball was in the court of the BJP. "If they need our support then we will have to think how far we can go,'' is his latest stance.

Interestingly, Mr.Chautala has also hit back at those leaders who were "describing the INLD as a sinking boat'' and exhorted them not to board it. He asserted that the INLD had the people of the State to save the "sinking boat'' while these leaders were rootless and had no entity in the State politics. He has also taken umbrage over the allegations being levelled by the State-level BJP leaders that his regime had been `misutilising' the funds released by the Union Government.

According to insiders, while the State-level BJP leaders want a complete break with the INLD now, a section of the BJP leadership is understood to be favouring a formula whereby the BJP would part company with the INLD after the Lok Sabha elections and look for fresher pastures including rapprochement with the Haryana Vikas Party which it had ditched in 1999.

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Chautala in no mood to relent