Dushyant Singh Chautala, former Haryana deputy chief minister and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader, is trailing in the Uchana Kalan constituency as per initial trends more than one hour into counting of votes in the Haryana Assembly elections 2024. Chautala is currently trailing Congress opponent Brijendra Singh.
A Jat-dominated constituency, Uchana Kalan was major battleground for the October 5 Haryana Assembly elections and witnessed the clash of two prominent political families — former deputy prime minister Devi Lal’s great-grandson Dushyant Singh Chautala and former Union minister Birender Singh’s son Brijendra Singh.
Dushyant Singh Chautala is the sitting MLA from the constituency and is seeking a re-election. He is the grandson of former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala.
In the Haryana polls 2024, Chautala was up against bureaucrat-turned-politician and Congress candidate Brijendra Singh. Singh and his father Birender Singh quit the BJP earlier this year and joined the Congress. Birender Singh, the grandson of farmer leader Sir Chhotu Ram, had joined the BJP ahead of the Haryana polls in 2014, snapping his over four-decade-old ties with the Congress.
The ruling BJP fielded Devender Chatar Bhuj Attri as its candidate for the Uchana Kalan seat.
Uchana Kalan Assembly Constituency
The Uchana Kalan assembly constituency falls in the Jind district, considered Haryana’s political heartland. Before Dushyant Chautala won the Uchana Kalan constituency, it was considered to be a bastion of the Birender Singh family. The former Union minister himself was a five-time MLA from the constituency.
Dushyant Chautala won the seat in the 2019 Haryana elections, defeating Brijendra’s mother Prem Lata Singh by over 47,000 votes. Prem Lata had defeated Chautala in 2014.
Dushyant Singh Chautala: King or Kingmaker?
The JJP leader has predicted a hung Assembly in Haryana this time, but exuded confidence that the JJP alliance will win enough seats to emerge as a key player after the results. The JJP had won 10 of the 90 Assembly seats in the 2019 Haryana assembly polls, the BJP 40 and the Congress 31.
Asked whether the JJP will support any other outfit in case of a hung Assembly, Chautala quipped, “Why to go behind somebody. Why can’t somebody come behind us. Anybody can form a good alliance in which we lead… rest of the things we can comment when results are out,” he said.
In the 2019 Haryana Assembly polls, the JJP had won 10 of the 90 ssembly seats, the BJP 40 and the Congress 31. Emerging as a ‘kingmaker’, it entered into a post-poll tie-up with BJP, which had fallen short of majority.
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