Banished from INLD a year ago, JJP chief Dushyant Chautala has transformed into man of the moment as BJP, Congress fail to clinch majority

Haryana Assembly elections seem to be heading somewhere rather unexpected and the key to who wins lies in the hand of 31-year-old Dushyant Chautala, president of Jannayak Janata Party (JJP). While BJP won with 40 seats, the Congress was not far behind with 31 seats. However, as both parties fall short of a majority (46 seats) — they will need is to woo Dushyant whose party JJP was formed only last year.

Here we delve into who this potential ‘kingmaker’ and how his party came into being.

Grandson of Om Prakash Chautala and the great-grandson of former deputy prime minister Chaudhary Devi Lal Chautala, Dushyant was born in Hisar on 03 April 1988. His father Ajay Singh Chautala, the elder son of Om Prakash Chautala, was also a former MP. This impressive lineage may have nudged Dushyant into politics but he has certainly managed to hold his own in the political milieu.

His educational qualifications too are quite notable with a ‘Masters of Law’ from National Law University and a BScience in Business Administration from California State University, Bakersfield, California, USA. He completed his schooling from The Lawrence School, Sanawar, Himachal Pradesh.

He began his political career with a bang when he defeated Kuldeep Bishnoi of the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) by a margin of 31,847 votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections. In fact, he also holds a record in the Limca Book of Records for becoming the youngest ever elected MP.

In late 2018, Ajay Chautala and both his sons Dushyant and Digvijay Chautala were ousted from the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) that was headed by Om Prakash Chautala. (Ajay and his father Om Prakash Chautala are currently serving a jail term of 10 years after being found guilty in a teachers’ recruitment scam.) The reason behind the split was a feud between Dushyant’s father Ajay and his younger brother Abhay Chautala. There was also an incident that involved followers of Dushyant and Digvijay targeting Abhay Chautala at an INLD rally in October 2018 that led to their expulsion.

This split led to the formation of the JJP on 9 December 2018.

On 31 January 2019, a little over a month after formation, the JJP fought a crucial Assembly by-election from Jind in Haryana. They lost the election, but certainly not by a massive margin. While the winning candidate Krishan Lal Middha from BJP got around 50,000 votes, Dushyant’s party got around 37,000 votes followed by the Congress who got around 22,000 votes.

Cut to 24 October 2019, Dushyant now holds the golden key and says he will only back the party that will offer him the role of Haryana’s chief minister. In fact, earlier today he predicted that it will be his novice party will hold the key to power in the state and that neither BJP nor the Congress will be able to secure 46 seats it needs to win.