While the rally was held in his father’s support, the speakers, including Indian National Lok Dal chief Om Prakash Chautala, mentioned cricketer Yuvraj Singh countless times in their speeches, here on Thursday. Yuvraj’s father, former cricketer and Punjabi film actor Yograj Singh, is the INLD’s candidate from Panchkula constituency in the October 13 Haryana Assembly polls.

Chautala did mention ‘Yuvi’ during his speech, but his principal subject remained the alleged failure of the Congress government in the state. “The Congress has made the poor poorer and it is time to bury this government,” he said.

Seeking to write off his party’s crushing defeat in the May Lok Sabha polls, he said, “The Lok Sabha election was a national fight, which was only between Lal Krishan Advani and Manmohan Singh. Issues are different in state elections. The Congress is thinking that it will replicate the Lok Sabha win, but we will prove them wrong.”

Attacking his erstwhile partners, the BJP, he said the BJP’s policies were no different from those of the Congress.

He said the law and order situation in Haryana was “worse than ever”. “There is a murder every 8 th hour and a rape every 12th hour,” he said.

Yograj, in his speech, said, “When I move in society, people call me Yuvraj’s father. But after entering politics, I will want work so much as an INLD representative that when I move in society, people call me the son of Om Prakash Chautala.” He said the Congress was like Ahmed Shah Abdali who plundered people, “The Congress is doing the same.”

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