Gurugram: Tosham is likely to feature the clash of two members from Bansi Lal’s clan — Kiran Choudhry and Anirudh Chaudhry — in the former Haryana CM’s traditional seat in the upcoming state elections.
With Bansi Lal’s daughter-in-law Kiran Choudhry quitting the Congress to join the BJP Wednesday, his grandson Anirudh Chaudhry is an aspirant for the Congress ticket from the seat.
“Yes, I am interested in contesting from Tosham, as I have been working there for more than two years. Earlier, I was working in Tosham as well as in the Badhra assembly segment. But since Chachiji (aunt, read Kiran Choudhry) has left the Congress, I will stake my claim for the party ticket because my grandfather used to contest this seat. Rest all depends on the party because distribution of tickets is a process, and it is up to the leadership who they choose to field in Tosham,” Anirudh told ThePrint Thursday.
A former manager of the Indian cricket team, Anirudh, 47, is a former member of the IPL Governing Council and a former treasurer of the BCCI. He did his initial education from Bal Bhawan, Bhiwani before moving to Mayo College, Ajmer. Anirudh then completed a B.Com degree from Kirori Mal College, Delhi University and a degree in law from Delhi University.
His father, Ranbir Mahendra, had drifted away from Bansi Lal when the former Haryana CM was in the prime of his politics. However, after Mahendra’s younger brother and Kiran Choudhry’s husband Surender Singh died in a helicopter crash in May 2005, the ties were restored.
After Bansi Lal’s death in 2006, the two families were entangled in a legal battle over the ownership of properties, with a case still pending before the courts.
Meanwhile, Anirudh said that even during the recent parliamentary elections, he campaigned in Tosham with Congress candidate Rao Dan Singh.“We started Rao Dan Singh’s campaign in Tosham by paying tribute to Chaudhary Bansi Lal’s statue in our ancestral village Golagarh. My aunt wasn’t present during the campaign.”
Claiming that he was getting a massive response during his visits to Tosham, Anirudh expressed confidence that if the Congress fielded him in the upcoming polls, he would win by a huge margin.
Haryana will go to polls in October-November.
Kiran Choudhry, however, seemed unfazed at the possibility of her nephew contesting against her in Tosham.
“It doesn’t make a difference who the Congress fields against me. The person you are talking about (Anirudh) won’t be acceptable among voters in Tosham because everyone knows that his father (Ranbir Mahendra) always opposed Bansi Lal and allied with his detractors. In the 1998 Lok Sabha elections when my husband contested from Bhiwani as his father’s Haryana Vikas Party candidate, Anirudh’s father contested as the Congress candidate,” the sitting MLA told ThePrint Thursday.
She further recalled that her late husband Surender Singh eventually won the election while Mahendra finished a poor third with 27,000 votes and lost his security deposit.
“He (Mahendra) contested assembly elections thrice from Badhra and lost on all three occasions,” the Tosham MLA added.
Expressing happiness at the response she got from the BJP leadership and people on joining the party, Kiran Choudhry claimed that the BJP will form government again in Haryana. “Congress can’t come to power at any cost. The party has been relegated to a personal fiefdom by some people now,” she said, hinting at former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Anirudh, however, said that his aunt had joined the party that ditched Bansi Lal in 1999 and toppled his government.
The Congress is all set to form the government in Haryana under Bhupinder Singh Hooda after the assembly polls due this year, he said.
Ever since ‘Chachiji’ joined BJP, Anirudh said, he has been getting hundreds of calls from the old supporters of Bansi Lal and Surender Singh who are worried about his legacy.
“I am assuring them that I am committed to keeping the name of Chaudhary Bansi Lal, Chaudhary Ranbir Mahendra and Chaudhary Surender Singh atop,” Anirudh said.
He also shared a post on his Facebook page in this regard.
If an electoral contest happens at Tosham, this will be the second of the three famous Lal dynasties of Haryana — Devi Lal, Bansi Lal and Bhajan Lal — whose members are clashing against each other in the last six months.
In the just concluded Parliamentary elections, Devi Lal’s son Ranjit Singh (BJP) was pitted among others against his father’s two grand daughters-in-law, Naina Chautala (JJP) and Sunaina Chautala (INLD) at Hisar. All three eventually lost the election which was won by Jai Parkash of the Congress.
(Edited by Tony Rai)