New Delhi:  The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) led by political successors of Devi Lal will invite key regional parties to Lal’s 105th birth anniversary celebrations to cement another broad understanding. Almost three decades after Haryana leader and former deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal played an important role in bringing together opposition parties against the Congress.

Party leader Dushyant Chautala said that the event will be held at Gohana in Sonepat, Haryana, on September 25. Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, who has an alliance with the INLD in Haryana, is expected to be one of the prominent faces at the event.

Senior INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala met Mayawati in New Delhi on Wednesday to invite her to the rally. This will be the first time that Mayawati will be sharing the dais with INLD leaders after they announced a tie-up.

“We will invite all friends of Devi Lal who were with him during his days of struggle,” Dushyant Chautala, Devi Lal’s great grandson, said. Another INLD leader said former prime minister HD Deve Gowda of the Janata Dal (Secular), Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party, Ajit Singh of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and several others will be invited to the event.

Devi Lal was one of north India’s most significant political figures. He first entered the Punjab Legislative Assembly on a Congress ticket in 1951. A critic of the Emergency, he was jailed during the period. A follower of the tall Jat leader and former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh, he first became Haryana Chief Minister in 1977.