Family ties run across Haryana rivalries

CHANDIGARH: There’s a filial line running through Haryana’s political scene as several candidates and netas who find themselves in rival camps belong to the same families.


For instance, Congress veteran and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s son-in-law, Kunal Bhadoo, is a BJP leader in Punjab’s Abohar. Kunal’s mother, Vijay Laxmi Bhadoo, had contested the 2012 assembly elections as the saffron party’s nominee from Abohar in Punjab, but lost to Congress’ Sunil Jakhar.

Similarly, Union minister Birender Singh, a bitter rival of Hooda, is his maternal cousin. He openly revolted against Hooda when they were together in Congress and joined BJP just before the assembly elections in Haryana in August 2014.

BJP’s

Sonipat

leader Krishna Gahlaut, who is also chairperson of Haryana State Agriculture Marketing Board, is the mother-in-law of senior Rajasthan Congress leader Jyoti Mirdha Gehlaut.

Jyoti is married to Krishna’s son Narender, who is a senior executive at IndiaBulls. Jyoti is contesting the Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket from the Nagaur seat in Rajasthan.

Jyoti’s sister Hemsweta Mirdha Hooda is married to Deepender Hooda, the son of former CM Bhupinder Hooda. So, there’s a family link between BJP’s Gahlaut and Hooda as well.

Senior Haryana Congress member Captain Ajay Yadav’s son Chiranjeev Rao is married to Anushka, daughter of former Bihar CM and RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav.

INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala might be criticising BJP on many platforms, but his brotherin-law Abhishek Matoria is a senior BJP leader in Rajasthan. He is a two-time MLA from the Nauhar assembly seat in

Hanumangarh district

of Rajasthan. Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh’s brother Rao Yadavendra Singh is in Congress. The MP’s other brother, Rao Ajit Singh, was in INLD but he quit some time back.

Former deputy PM Devi Lal’s grandson Aditya Chautala is in BJP and the Haryana government recently appointed him chairperson of Haryana State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank.

Aditya is Devi Lal’s youngest son Jagdish Chautala’s son. Aditya had defeated INLD leader Abhay Chautala’s wife in the zila parishad polls held in January 2016.