The INLD's political graph started nose-diving in 2004 when it failed to get even one of the state's ten Lok Sabha seats. A year later it tasted humiliating defeat when it got only nine of the Assembly's 90 seats and failed to get the status of even opposition party in the House it had lorded over for six years. The decline in Chautala's political clout provides the example of how rulers who use autocratic ways to rule in a democracy, are not the masters of their own destiny. The fact finds its echo in the reasons articulated by Sampat Singh in support of his resignation.

Termed by political analysts as the brain and the main trouble-shooter of INLD, Sampat Singh questioned the style of functioning of the party leadership. A staunch loyalist of late Devi Lal, he said that “under Om Parkash Chautala the party deviated from Devi Lal's ideology. The workers got respect in the party till the party was out of power but once the party attained power, workers were the first to be humiliated publicly. Factors like arrogance of those who remained in close proximity to the Chautala family cost the party dear. Excesses committed on the people during the Chautala regime turned the people against INLD.”

Apart from other reasons for quitting the party, Sampat Singh also held Chautala responsible for his defeat in Lok Sabha election from Hisar from where the former Chief Minister and Haryana Janhit Congress supremo Bhajan Lal won by just over 6000 votes. He said he had not lost the seat but was made to lose the seat. The party leadership diverted the cadre and senior leaders from Hisar to Bhiwani from where Chautala's son Ajay Chautala was contesting but still he lost to a political novice Shruti Choudhry, grand daughter of late Bansi Lal.

Sampat Singh's charge that “the party supremo (Om Parkash Chautala) was weighed down by the love for his son and that the father and the two sons have some kind of veto power” highlights the growing trend in the family-controlled regional parties bosses to promote their progeny as their political heir. The phenomenon is blocking the prospects of leaders who have spent their lives in their parties and nurse the ambition of climbing the power ladder as and when opportunity arrives.

Such blocking of path to hierarchical climb is the main reason behind the rising trend of revolts in the regional parties. Raj Thackray revolted against Bal Thackray after the Shiv Sena chief declared his son Udhav Thackray as his political heir. Narayan Rane also quit the Sena. Similarly, there have been revolts in Lalu Yadav's RJD and Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party. There has been simmering discontent even among some senior Akali leaders of Punjab against the “elevation and supremacy” of Sukhbir Singh Badal imposed on the party by his Chief Minister father. It is only because of Parkash Singh Badal's unchallenged political stature and vote-catching capability that has so far prevented a revolt in the party. Though the short-lived revolt of the late party general secretary and Cooperation Minister Capt. Kanwaljit Singh's son Jasjit Singh Bunny was described as emotional outburst due to his father's death in a car accident, his aborted decision to resign from Akali Dal and contest Lok Sabha poll as an Independent symbolised the resentment against Sukhbir's elevation.

Sampat Singh is not the lone leader who has quit INLD. Not only are there some second rung party leaders who have also quit INLD, some senior leaders of Bhajan Lal's infant Janhit Congress, BSP and BJP have also parted ways with their parties. Many of them have joined the Congress. Sampat Singh may also follow suit. The trend will have its implications. The influx of opposition leaders into the Congress will create problem of opposition leaders surplus talent in the ruling party seeking ticket for contesting Assembly elections due in February 2010, if not held earlier. The important among the opposition leaders joining the Congress must have extracted the promise of getting nomination as party candidates. The ruling party will find its task of accommodating them insurmountable since it will already have abundance of its own leaders aspiring for the ticket.

Every development has its negative and positive facets. The exodus of leaders from non-Congress parties and their influx into the ruling party will weaken Haryana's already crippled opposition. This will not augur well for democracy. In the absence of an effective opposition, the ruling party usually develops tendencies that can prove harmful for functional democracy. On the other side, the trend of revolt against dynastic politics in the regional parties is a welcome development. It will lead to steady disintegration of the family-controlled regional parties who have been largely responsible for promoting coalition politics and the resultant fragile political stability.

A pioneer of Aya Ram Gaya Ram politics, Haryana is witnessing a new phase of defection politics. In the process, it is bringing about changes, some welcome and some unwelcome, in contemporary politics. (IPA Service)