Om Prakash Chautala expels older son for 'anti-party activities'

Chandigarh: The ongoing feud within the Chautala family escalated with INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala expelling his son Ajay Singh from the primary membership of the party for alleged anti-party activities.

The decision was taken on Monday and announced at a press conference in Chandigarh on Wednesday called by Ajay's younger brother and Leader of Opposition in the Haryana Assembly, Abhay Singh Chautala.

Ajay Singh who is serving a 10-year jail term along with his father and former chief minister O P Chautala in a teachers' recruitment scam in the state is currently out on a two-week parole.

Two weeks ago, the INLD chief had also expelled from the party Ajay Singh Chautala's two sons — Hisar MP Dushyant and his brother Digvijay.

Though Ajay Singh's wife and INLD MLA Naina Chautala too has been vocal against her detractors within the party after action against her sons, she has been spared from any disciplinary action.

INLD state unit president Ashok Arora announced the decision to expel Ajay in presence of Abhay Singh Chautala as well as nine of the 18 party MLAs and two of the three MPs. He flashed before reporters a letter signed by Om Prakash Chautala in this regard.

Arora said the INLD has called a meeting of the state executive as well as of MLAs and MPs in Chandigarh on November 17. On the same day, Ajay Singh has called a similar meeting in Jind.

The INLD state unit president claimed that the meeting called by Ajay Singh in Jind “is in violation of the party constitution because such a meeting cannot be convened without the approval of the party president."

"Therefore, any meeting which is convened without prior approval of the party's national president shall invite disciplinary action,” Arora said.

Asserting that the party is supreme and no one is above it, the letter by Om Prakash Chautala stated that the "anti-party activities" of INLD's Haryana unit secretary-general Ajay Singh have "caused hurt and have become unbearable".

"Ajay Singh has convened a meeting on November 17, which is unconstitutional, and makes it clear that he is trying to run a parallel set up to weaken the party," the letter stated while announcing Ajay Singh's expulsion from the party.

At the press conference, Abhay Singh Chautala, for the first time, launched an attack on his elder brother and accused him of playing into the hands of the BJP and the Congress to weaken the INLD.

Pitted against his younger brother Abhay in a power struggle within the INLD, Ajay Singh had on Tuesday hit out at his detractors for dubbing a party meet, convened by him, "unconstitutional".       

Ajay Singh had on Monday wrote a letter inviting the INLD's sitting and former MPs and MLAs, besides other office bearers for a state executive meet in Jind on November 17.

INLD spokesperson Praveen Attrey had questioned Ajay's authority to call the meeting. The objections to Ajay Singh's move to convene the meeting surfaced amid a festering family feud, which saw two of his sons - Dushyant and Digvijay being "expelled" from the party on November 2 by an order they have refused to accept.

Ajay Singh has been critical of the action against his sons.