Dushyant Chautala
Credit: PTI Photo
Former Haryana Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala faced an embarrassing defeat in the Haryana Assembly Elections 2024, where he perched fifth after 17 rounds of counting.
The Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader lost by a whopping 41,018 votes to BJP's Devender Chatar Bhuj Attri from the Uchana Kalan constituency.
Attri bagged 48,968, and won with a slight margin of 32 votes, as Congress' Brijendra Singh ranked a close second.
Right from the beginning, Dushyant, who is the grandson of ex-Haryana CM Om Prakash Chautala, and the great grandson of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, was trailing.
The 36-year-old is president of the JJP, a party which he formed after splitting from the Indian National Lok Dal.
Dushyant was the sixth deputy CM of Haryana when BJP's Manohar Lal Khattar was in power. He severed his ties with the BJP six months ahead of the Assembly elections and contested the polls in alliance with Chandra Shekhar Azad-led Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram).
But going by early trends, it looks as though the decision has backfired.
A Jat-dominated constituency, Uchana Kalan was a major battleground for the elections as it witnessed the clash of two prominent political families — Devi Lal’s great-grandson Dushyant vs former Union minister Birender Singh’s son Brijendra.
The BJP has been in power in Haryana since 2014 with Khattar as chief minister for over nine years.
The BJP's second term in office in 2019 was in alliance with the JJP, with Dushyant as the deputy CM.
Khattar and Chautala quit in March ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, making way for Nayab Singh Saini, a prominent OBC face of the BJP, as chief minister. That was the time when Chautala's JJP also snapped ties with the BJP.
The current result in Uchana Kalan constituency is a major setback for Dushyant in his fledgling political career.
Meanwhile, in the Dabwali constituency, Devi Lal's grandson Aditya Devi Lal, an INLD candidate, was taking on JJP's Digvijay Singh Chautala, the great grandson of the former deputy prime minister.
Chautala lost with a margin of 20,813 votes while Devilal clinched the seat with 56,074 votes. Coming in close second was Amit Sihag who bagged 55,464 votes.
Haryana Assembly poll 2024 results| Check constituency results here
J&K Assembly poll 2024 results| Check constituency results here
Assembly Elections 2024 | In the first assembly polls since the Lok Sabha elections, Narendra Modi and the BJP face a rejuvenated and vindicated Opposition in the Haryana assembly polls. Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir is voting after almost a decade and it remains to be seen how the abrogation of Article 370 has impacted the political landscape of the Valley. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.
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