In a decisive rebuke, voters in Haryana have delivered a severe blow to the Chautala family’s decades-old political stronghold, rejecting both the regional parties the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).
In what can only be described as a political earthquake, top leaders of the Chautala dynasty—including Abhay, Dushyant, and Digvijay Chautala—suffered humiliating defeats, marking a dramatic shift in Haryana’s political landscape-despite both the parties were contesting election in alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party and Azad Samaj Party-with a focus on Dalit votes.
The INLD, contesting 52 seats in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), managed to win only two seats, its worst performance yet. Despite having once held sway over Haryana politics, the party’s fortunes have been in steady decline. This defeat marks a far cry from 2014, when the INLD won 19 seats and became the second-largest party, only trailing the BJP’s Modi wave. The slide has been evident since 2009, when it secured 31 seats, but this election’s outcome marks a new low. The alliance’s vote share has plummeted, signaling the deep erosion of its grassroots support.
The JJP, which had positioned itself as a potential kingmaker in the 2019 assembly polls after securing 10 seats, also faced complete obliteration. Not a single JJP candidate managed to win, with most losing their deposits. The party’s vote share, once a promising 14.8% in 2019, has evaporated in this election. The voters’ verdict is a clear rejection of the Chautala family’s rule, and the once-powerful JJP now finds itself without a foothold in the state. Of the eight members of the Devi Lal family who contested, six faced defeat, signaling a generational shift away from the dynastic politics that have long defined Haryana. The biggest shock came from Dushyant Chautala, the former Deputy Chief Minister and the face of the JJP, who finished a distant fifth in his constituency, securing a meager 7,950 votes—an embarrassing outcome for a leader who once held national ambitions. Abhay Chautala, the four-time MLA from Ellenabad and a stalwart of the INLD, also lost his seat, a defeat that marks the end of his family’s decades-long dominance in the region. He was bested by Bharat Singh Beniwal by a staggering margin of 15,000 votes.
