Uchana Kalan (Haryana): Travelling on the national highway connecting Sirsa and Jind, one can almost miss the political battle being played out in Uchana Kalan. But as one moves into the agricultural town, which has prominent wholesale townships, the fight becomes hard to miss.The most prominent face here is Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) founder Dushyant Chautala. After his grandfather and former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala and his father Ajay Chautala were convicted in an appointments scam, Dushyant fell out with his uncle and former MP Abhay Chautala. He then formed the JJP, which is now putting up a strong fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party in most of Haryana.Dushyant is the great-grandson of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal.While the BJP had won 47 seats in the 90-member assembly in 2014, the Indian National Lok Dal had finished second with 19 seats and the Congress was relegated to the third spot with 15 seats. Over the last five years, many INLD leaders joined the BJP, while others went to the JJP.Dushyant is the educated and suave face of the Chautala clan, having studied at the Lawrence School, Sanawar and California State University, Bakersfield from where he did his bachelors in business administration. He also went on to complete his masters in law from the National Law University.In 2014, during the Modi wave, he won the Hisar Lok Sabha seat under which the Uchana Kalan assembly segment falls. He defeated Kuldeep Bishnoi by 31,847 votes and become the youngest MP.Also read | Haryana Polls: Is Khattar Taking Karnal For Granted?However, in the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year, he lost to former IAS officer Brijender Singh. Brijender is the son of Union minister Birender Singh and BJP candidate and sitting MLA from Uchana, Prem Lata.Now that he is seeking to revive his party in Haryana, Dushyant thought it best to contest again from Uchana Kalan.‘People will vote for Dushyant as he is CM face of JJP’At his party office, party in-charge and former political adviser to Dushyant’s father Ajay, Jagdish Sihag, said the issue for the party is development. Dushyant is the chief ministerial face for the JJP, he added, while Prem Lata did not work for the constituency in the last five years. “In Uchana she opened her private college but did not open any government educational institution. The Singh family does not participate in social events of locals and only rules through threats and fear.”JJP leader Jagdish Sihag. Photo: Bazil AshrafiSihag, who had also served as director of the Education Board, Bhiwani, said people have this time found an option and opportunity with Dushyant to express their anger. “The Brahmins are also angry because recently when [chief minister Manohar Lal] Khattar threatened a party worker, that I will cut off your head, it turned out that that worker was a Brahmin who had a long association with the BJP and RSS. He said Valmikis and backward classes were also supporting Dushyant. Because of this we feel, Dushyant may win by over 20,000 votes. I would not be surprised if Prem Lata loses her deposit.”He also charged that the “BJP does Jat politics but we do not, and we have the support of all 36 communities”.‘Both Congress, BJP did politics of vendetta’Sihag said it was wrong of Hooda and Birender Singh to claim that they do not do politics of vendetta. “Om Prakash Chautala and Ajay Chautala have been framed in cases. I worked closely with Ajay, he is a very fine man, one of integrity. I am an educationist, have been a professor, and not a politician. I was with him because he believed in working for all.”Also read | Haryana: Growing Drug Menace a Major Poll Issue in Districts Adjoining PunjabMeanwhile, at Prem Lala’s office, the election is being primarily managed by Raj Kartar Singh, a cousin of both Birender Singh and Bhupinder Hooda. He said Lata’s strength is the work of the Modi and Khattar governments and the image of her husband.“Birender Singh has represented the area five times as MLA and once as Lok Sabha MP. He has also been Rajya Sabha MP for three terms, been a Haryana minister in two governments and a Union minister but he never believed in vengeance towards opponent or casteism. His honesty is his biggest asset,” he claimed.The Congress office in Uchana. Photo: Bazil AshrafiAs for Dushyant staking a claim to the constituency, Singh said, “He became an MP by default. Bishnoi, son of former chief minister Bhajan Lal – the last non-Jat chief minister before Khattar – had used some objectionable words for Jats and this antagonised the community, which voted vehemently in favour of Dushyant, ensuring his victory by a big margin.”But, he said, Prem Lata’s win over him by 7,480 votes in the 2014 assembly polls and Brijender’s win against him by 3,14,068 votes showed who people actually prefer. During the Lok Sabha polls too, he said, in the Uchana segment the BJP had polled over 10,000 votes more than JJP.Also read | Uneasy Lies the Head That Wears BJP’s Crown in HaryanaNoting that Uchana was a Jat-dominated constituency with over 52% people from the community, Kartar Singh said that “Jat and ‘jota’ (male buffalo) apnon ko hi maartay hain (attack their own)”.Among other communities in the constituency, he said, 16% were Scheduled Castes or Other Backward Classes, 17% were Brahmins, and 4.5% each Vaish and Muslims.As for the Congress candidate, Balram Katwal, Singh said he was also from Hooda and Birender Singh’s extended family, being the son-in-law of Hooda’s maternal uncle.