In the early 2000s, if you passed through the Grand Trunk Road stretch between Delhi and Haryana, you would not miss two things: the ubiquitous Pachranga pickle shops (where you also got heavenly murabbas) and walls plastered with the slogan, “Gali gali shahar shahar Chautala ki lahar chali”. The mascot of the Om Prakash Chautala-led Haryana government was, of course, Chautala’s father ‘Tau’ Devi Lal, India’s former deputy prime minister who passed away in 2001.
The 2004 general election results, however, saw a massive change of sentiment on the ground, and the Congress, which had been out of power since 1996 in Haryana, swung right back into contention after winning nine out of the 10 Lok Sabha seats. Bansi Lal — who, along with ‘Tau’ Devi Lal and Bhajan Lal formed the triumvirate of iconic Lal politicians from Haryana — soon merged his breakaway Haryana Vikas Party with the Congress.
The assembly election that followed saw Congress routing Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and winning a huge mandate, only to be faced with the dilemma of choosing the chief minister. There were three contenders mainly — Bhajan Lal, the PCC chief and CLP leader, Surender Singh (son of Bansi Lal) and Birender Singh — along with a fourth, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, then an MP from Rohtak, as the dark horse.
The Congress high command picked Hooda, who was junior to the other three, but a proven giant-killer by then — Hooda had defeated ‘Tau’ Devi Lal in three consecutive Lok Sabha elections from Rohtak in 1991, 1996 and 1998 — overlooking the claims of Bhajan Lal and the others. Chander Mohan, elder son of Lal, was accommodated as deputy CM to mollify the veteran.
Surender Singh died prematurely in a chopper crash (along with industrialist OP Jindal) within a month of swearing in as a minister in the Hooda government. And a sulking Bhajan Lal floated the breakaway Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) along with his younger son Kuldeep Bishnoi in a couple of years. In an effort to gain total control of the legislature party, Hooda was intent on cutting Birender Singh to size, with the latter being the only serious challenger left in the party.
OPINION | Rahul Gandhi Shirking Amethi Will Only Prove Smriti Irani Charge That He Is Running Away From The Contest
The 2009 assembly election witnessed a clash of the titans when Om Prakash Chautala switched over to Birender Singh’s traditional bastion of Uchana Kalan, and this was billed as a contest between two CM-candidates, with Chautala emerging victorious by the narrowest of margins. And Hooda managed to come to power a second time in 2009, albeit with a slim majority.
In 2010, the Congress bestowed Birender Singh with a Rajya Sabha seat, and the dailies in Haryana kept speculating that a ministership was on its way. Finally, in June 2013, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh summoned Singh to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to take oath as minister in his cabinet, only to be told at the last minute that he would have to wait until later.
Singh took the humiliation on his chin but his legion of supporters was left disappointed, having taken the trip to Delhi from Hisar in anticipation of their leader’s swearing-in. Another opportunity never came by, and a bitter Singh would confide to close confidants and journalists, including me, then working as a reporter of a national daily in Haryana, of Hooda’s role in getting his name struck off.
The sobriquet ‘tragedy king’ probably came to be associated with Singh around this time — as the grandson of Sir Chhotu Ram (a pre-Independence-era Jat leader) who contested his first assembly election in 1972, achieving little until that point. Ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election, many tall leaders of the Congress switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including sitting MPs Rao Inderjeet Singh, Dharambir Singh and Ramesh Kaushik, but the prized catch was Birender Singh himself, who saw a chance to become CM if the BJP came to power.
Singh reckoned that it was only possible with him as a leadership option, especially with the BJP lacking tall Jat leaders, and the image of the BJP as a party of Banias and Punjabis influential only in the Grand Trunk Road belt. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had other ideas, and he went on to pick his Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) mate, the bumbling Manohar Lal Khattar, as CM, despite the latter woefully lacking in experience.
Singh was soon rewarded with a cabinet ministry by Modi, though, and he finally got his due in politics. But Singh never felt comfortable with the BJP’s style of functioning, and his secular way of life wasn’t in sync with the BJP, although he soldiered on. Singh’s IAS officer son Brijendra Singh was fielded by the BJP from Hisar in 2019, which the latter won by trouncing Dushyant Chautala and Kuldeep Bishnoi, and his own political career took a back seat in its aftermath.
Singh gave up his Rajya Sabha seat in 2020 with two years left in the tenure, “to send a message against anti-dynastic politics”. But it was also to set himself free to speak his mind independently on issues such as the enactment of the (now-repealed) farm bills later that year, and to keep up his tirade against the politics of the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) of Dushyant Chautala, to whom he took an instant disliking to.
Singh took a markedly different position from the official BJP line on issues such as the farmers’ protests, the wrestlers’ protest against their federation chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh (BJP Uttar Pradesh strongman), and on Sandeep Singh, the minister in the Khattar cabinet accused of sexual misconduct.
But Singh’s discomfiture about continuing with the BJP under these circumstances and the possible political price his son would have to pay — especially with the BJP continuing its dalliance with Dushyant Chautala — led him to publicly hint at his exit from the party. It was Brijendra Singh who announced his quitting first, and soon it was confirmed that the father too would follow.
ALSO READ | BJP’s Mission Tamil Nadu – Five Factors To Watch As Modi Looks To Breach Dravidian Fortress
The homecoming of Birender Singh to Haryana’s Congress where Hooda is still the first among equals is something that many people might find odd now. But Singh and Hooda are relatives and keep running into each other socially, to a point where there is no animosity left between the duo today.
And Singh is probably content playing the role of a ‘Tau’ (elder statesman) in the divided house of Haryana Congress where the likes of Kumari Selja, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Kiran Chowdhary have emerged as key players along with the Hoodas. The ‘tragedy king’ has probably got the timing right on this occasion since the Congress looks poised to pick up a few Lok Sabha seats, unlike the rout in 2019.
Apart from Hisar where Brijendra Singh will be the favourite along with Deepinder Singh Hooda in Rohtak, it’s the Ambala, Sirsa, Sonepat and even Kurukshetra (allotted to ally AAP) seats where the I.N.D.I.A bloc stands a fighting chance if it gets the candidates right. And with the JJP unraveling to a point where it is contemplating merging with the parent INLD, the Congress looks certain to come back to power in the assembly elections to follow in Haryana.
The author is a senior journalist and political columnist.
[Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs, and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs, and views of ABP News Network Pvt Ltd.]
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Andrew Mitrovica
Mort Laitner
Rami G Khouri
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
visit website
