Eye on panchayat polls, INLD ups ante to make presence felt

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 14

After practically being absent from the political scene for the last few months and leaving the entire business of protests to the Congress, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), has woken up to make its presence felt.

Organising meetings in three assembly segments in a day, Leader of Opposition and senior INLD leader Abhay Chautala, accompanied by the state unit president Ashok Arora, began his state tour last week.

Sources said the INLD’s revival of interest in reaching out to the people is essentially due to the upcoming panchayat elections in the state, likely to be announced in July. However, sources within the INLD maintain the party has been raising the cause of the people without creating too much noise. “Of late, the party has been busy installing new heads and identifying new leaders to lead its various cells. We are done with the re-organisation of our cells,” a leader stated.

Though the factions led by state unit chief Ashok Tanwar and former Chief Minister and MLA Bhupinder Singh Hooda have organised their ‘own shows’, the Congress was the visible Opposition.

In the budget session in March this year, the Congress had gone to the extent of calling the INLD the B-team of the BJP. The Congress leaders had termed the “unofficial” alliance between the INLD and the BJP on the floor of the House as a “marriage of convenience”.

Both the BJP and the INLD had joined hands and targeted the Congress for its 10-year rule in the state. The arrangement suited the BJP because, despite a number of goof-ups — whether it was the handling of the Satlok Ashram or the distribution of urea — it escaped being in the line of fire by keeping the heat on the Congress.