After 60 yrs of no woman candidate, Jat-dominated Hisar is seeing a clash of the Chautala bahus

The Jat-dominated Hisar Lok Sabha seat, which has not seen a woman candidate in six decades, is witnessing a battle of the Chautala bahus this year. Naina Chautala, the sitting MLA of the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), founded by her son and former Deputy Chief Minister of Haryana Dushyant Chautala, is squaring off against Sunaina Chautala, her sister-in-law and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate.

Naina, 57, and Sunaina, AGE, are married into two branches of theChauta la family, drawing their lineage back to former Deputy Prime Minister and Haryana’s preeminent Jat leader, Chaudhary Devi Lal. Naina is the daughter-in-law of former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala; and Sunaina of his elder brother, the late Pratap
Singh Chautala.

The BJP’s candidate is also a Chautala, former state minister Ranjit Singh Chautala, 78, Devi Lal’s second son (younger to Pratap, elder to Om Prakash).

But mention this family fight to the Chautala bahus, and they shrug it off as “nothing unusual”. Sunaina says, “It’s not a family feud but a battle of ideologies. Both Ranjit ji and Naina ji are affiliated with the BJP, one currently, the other till the recent past (the JJP was an alliance partner of the BJP government in Haryana till March). I represent Devi Lal ji’s ideology.”

Naina points out that this is not the first time that Chautala family members are contesting against one another. “Devi Lal ji ka ped bahut bada ho gaya hai (The Devi Lal family tree has grown so large), now there are other offshoots,” says the matriarch, known for her passion for gardening and trees. Her husband Ajay Chautala had once successfully contested against Sunaina’s spouse Ravi Chautala from Dabwali.

Naina adds that her rivals have also flirted with