Indian National Lok Dal president and former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala has criss-crossed the entire state to make his party's Samman Divas rally a success.
His son and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Singh Chautala is also cobbling up support for the event to be held in the state’s Fatehabad on September 25, the day on which the birth anniversary of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal falls.
The success of the rally will give a big boost to the INLD, which has only one seat in the state Assembly and has been out of power since 2005. The party has given invitations to a galaxy of political leaders, including Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Telengana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao.
The former Haryana chief minister comes down heavily on the BJP-led government during his public meetings. "People are fed up. Our aim is to forge a strong front so that in next polls this government is ousted," the former CM says during public meetings.
Referring to his father the late Devi Lal, Chautala says realising his dreams is his main mission. "Today, every section is unhappy with this government and people want to get rid of this dispensation," he says.
The INLD chief and his son are also busy meeting senior leaders of other outfits ahead of the event. From sending out invitations and speaking to a galaxy of leaders, many of them over the phone, both Abhay and his father do not want to leave any stone unturned to ensure success of the event.
During his visit to Chandigarh, Abhay was seen giving instructions to an aide over the phone regarding tour programmes of Om Prakash Chautala. Abhay tells his aide to have INLD chief's programme lined up next week for Bhiwani district wherein he will cover several villages followed by a visit to Sirsa which.
Abhay says the rally will mark the "beginning of a change". "It will be a historic Samman Divas. Lakhs will participate in it. There is a tremendous response. I have toured many districts and visited villages. Chautala Sahab has covered all 22 districts and thousands are participating in his meetings," says the 59-year-old leader.
He says various sections, including farmers, women, employees and traders, are unhappy with the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Haryana. On efforts to cobble up a third front, Abhay prefers to call it a united front of various parties and said the endeavour will be that all leaders who share the joint stage take it forward from there.
Earlier too, the land of Haryana gave a new direction to the country's politics, he says hoping that various outfits will join hands and get rid of the "anti-people" government.
The leaders who have been invited for the rally are former Union minister Sharad Pawar, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, former prime minister and JD (S) leader H D Deve Gowda, former J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu.
Telengana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal Malik have also been invited for the rally.
Earlier this week, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had met the INLD chief and former CM in Gurugram. The INLD chief also met Mulayam Singh Yadav, who is admitted to a hospital in Gurugram. He met Sharad Pawar and CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury in Delhi and invited them for the event.
(With PTI Inputs)
