Chandigarh: The rift in the INLD widened further on Friday as its president Om Prakash Chautala's son Ajay Singh Chautala kept away from a meeting called by his younger brother Abhay Singh Chautala, summoning instead one of his own on November 17.
Ajay said the working committee meeting in Jind will decide to whom the Indian National Lok Dal belonged.
The Haryana-based party has been staring at a split after Om Prakash Chautala expelled his grandsons Dushyant and Digvijay from its primary membership for indiscipline. The two are the sons of Ajay, who is serving a 10-year jail sentence with his father for a teacher recruitment scam. He is currently on a two-week parole.
Abhay had summoned an "emergency meeting" of the party at Sirsa on Friday to discuss the INLD's agitation from December 1, seeking the completion of the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal. However, the meeting was also being seen as an attempt by him to keep his flock together.
Ajay, his wife and MLA Naina, Dushyant and Digvijay were among those who kept away.
Abhay, however, played down the development. "There is no dispute in the family," he said. "I wanted to meet Ajay on Friday morning, but he had left Sirsa. There are no differences in the family," he added.
Meanwhile, in Hansi, Ajay said an INLD working committee meeting will be held in Jind. Asked about Abhay's meeting in Sirsa, the elder brother said, "The INLD belongs to the workers and not to the individuals."
"The working committee meeting of the INLD on November 17 will decide to whom the party belongs," he said. The INLD has 18 MLAs in the 90-member Haryana Assembly.
"Ninety per cent of INLD MLAs and MPs attended the meeting," Abhay claimed. "The party is strong, some Congressmen want to weaken the INLD," he said.
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