ROHTAK: Now locked in a triangular contest for the Ellenabad assembly seat, Indian National Lok Dal’s Abhay Chautala, Pawan Beniwal of the Congress, and BJP’s Gobind Kanda were once fast friends who bonded over politics, Bollywood, and business. Beniwal and the Kandas were even Abhay’s election managers.
The October 30 byelection was forced by Abhay’s resignation in support of the farmers’ agitation against three central agri-marketing bills. The 2005 assembly election in Sirsa, contested by INLD’s Padam Jain, was managed from behind by Haryana Lokhit Party chief Gopal Kanda, who was then a rising real-estate tycoon, whose assets grew exponentially in Gurgaon during INLD’s tenure from 1999 to 2005. Gobind Kanda, the BJP’s nominee, is his younger brother, who looks after business and politics in Sirsa.
To repay the Chautalas in some way, Kanda began managing the INLD’s, in particular Abhay Chautala’s political campaigns. Riding on the experience he gained in the INLD and after running a successful religious tourism spot on the Rania road in Sirsa, Kanda joined electoral politics in 2009 as an independent candidate from Sirsa. After winning, he joined other independents to form the minority Congress government of Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Kanda was elevated as minister of state for home in 2009 and he confronted Abhay’s INLD supporters whenever needed.
Pawan Beniwal who left the BJP to become the Congress candidate in Ellenabad, was once called the "righthand man" of Abhay Chautala. Pawan’s aunt, Vidhya Beniwal, had been INLD’s MLA from the erstwhile Dadba seat and party’s Rajya Sabha member. Pawan’s family shared ties with the Chautala family from Tau Devi Lal’s generation when Pawan’s uncle, Jagdish Beniwal, used to be the Lok Dal legislator. In 2010, when Abhay faced byelection in Ellenabad after his father and former CM, OP Chautala, had to leave this seat to keep Uchana Kalan, Pawan Beniwal was one of the election managers.
In 2010, Abhay Chautala had brought Bollywood actors Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, and Chunky Pandey to campaign for him, all manged by Pawan Beniwal for his friend. They fell apart when Beniwal joined the BJP in 2014 and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He lost INLD’s respect. Pawan Beniwal, who matched up to Abhay in the Jat Bagri belt, was the BJP candidate from Ellenabad in 2014 and 2019. In 2014, Abhay defeated him by 11,539 votes, while in the 2019 assembly polls, margin was 11,922 votes.
