Ajay Chautala, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha constituency in Haryana, is working hard to win over voters’ confidence after the party was routed in the 2005 Assembly elections. In a conversation with Aasha Khosa, Chautala, the son of INLD supremo and former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, says the party joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as there was no better alternative before it. Excerpts:
Your party had first joined the Third Front and now it has re-joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). What prompted you to switch sides?
It is a fact that the INLD had not only joined the Third Front before the Presidential elections in 2007 but also initiated the move to launch it. My father was the main force in rallying all the parties at that time. However, we soon found that every leader in that front had big ego. Everyone there was self-centred and nobody was in a mood to even acknowledge others. This was an unlikely alliance.
But why did you choose the NDA?
In the present political scenario, there was no better alternative before us than the NDA. Also, no alliance is projecting as great and capable a leader as Advaniji.
Has the BJP started consulting with the NDA partners on a common agenda of the alliance?
Informal discussions have already started. But frankly, we in the INLD are very impressed by the BJP’s manifesto for the coming Lok Sabha elections. It is extensive and focussed. I cannot speak for other NDA partners, but our party fully supports its conversion into the NDA’s agenda for governance.
The INLD and BJP had problems in finalising seat adjustments in Haryana. Did things work out to your satisfaction?
The BJP and INLD are fighting five Lok Sabha seats each in Haryana; our candidates are contesting on the same seats as they had done in 1999. There is absolute unity between the alliance partners on the ground.
How is your campaign going on?
I have completed one round of campaigning in the constituencies and am currently in the second leg. I felt that people are angry with the state of affairs across the country. Issues like terrorism, secessionist movement, spectre of regional disintegration and inflation bother them.
Are you raising any state-specific issues in your campaign?
The biggest issue in Haryana today is the fraud on people played by the Congress government in the name of Special Economic Zones (SEZs). The government took fertile land from the farmers for the construction of 42 SEZs in the state. The government had promised to the people that these industrial enclaves would help create one million jobs and overall development.
But not a single brick has been laid in most of these SEZs. People have lost their land and the unemployment has increased manifold. Besides, the deteriorating law and order situation and shortage of drinking water is also part of our campaign.
But INLD was known to be a pro-development party. Are you opposing SEZs only because you are in the Opposition?
No, I have gone to the court challenging the SEZ Act. The INLD is dead against SEZs if it means usurping fertile land. Our legislators have protested against it and opposed the government’s move on this.
Your party had received a major drubbing in Assembly elections at the hands of Congress. The Congress got 67 out of 90 seats, whereas you (INLD) won only 9 out of 89 seats you contested. What lessons have you learnt from your defeat?
This is the reason why we have started our campaign quite early. We have identified the precise factors which led to our defeat last time. To sum a few of them, our government had imposed a tax on halwais (sweet-meat sellers), increased the house tax, introduced Form 58 (for compulsory local taxation), and also imposed VAT much before other states could do.
This all went against us in the elections. This time, we are trying to explain our previous compulsions to them (voters). We are working hard on making a fresh beginning with the voters.
