BJP’s expanding parivar now includes kin of almost all non-Gandhi former PMs, Deputy PMs

While the ruling BJP keeps talking against “parivarvaad (nepotism)” and has made “fight against dynasty politics” its key plank in the Lok Sabha elections, the party now has in its ranks family members of several former Prime Ministers and Deputy PMs.

Haryana minister and Independent legislator Ranjit Singh Chautala, son of ex-Deputy PM Devi Lal, became the latest in the list. He joined the BJP Sunday, to immediately land its ticket from the Hisar parliamentary seat.

Others include kin of two non-Gandhi PMs of the Congress – Lal Bahadur Shastri and P V Narasimha Rao – with the Congress often accused of sidelining stalwarts who do not belong to the Gandhi family.

Narasimha Rao’s son Prabhakar Rao is likely to join the BJP in Telangana soon. One of Rao’s grandsons, N V Subash, is already with the BJP.

Some members of the “socialist” ex-PMs’ families have also found home in the BJP or in the fold of its allies or “friendly” parties. Ex-PM Chandra Shekhar’s son Neeraj Shekhar switched to the BJP from the Samajwadi Party (SP) in 2019 and is currently a Rajya Sabha MP.

Former Janata Dal PM I K Gujral’s son Naresh Gujral has been a prominent leader of the Akali Dal (SAD), which had been the BJP’s oldest ally before it walked out of the NDA in September 2020 over the farmer’s agitation against the now-repealed farm laws. Both the parties have now decided to go solo in Punjab in the Lok Sabha elections after a few rounds of their backroom negotiations for reviving their alliance failed.

Janata Party stalwart and ex-PM Chaudhary Charan Singh’s son Ajit Singh, the RLD founder, had done his stint in the Cabinets of both the NDA and the Congress-led governments. He was part of the V P Singh-led National Front government and subsequently