Om Prakash Chautala

Om Prakash Chautala (born January 1, 1935, near Sirsa, Punjab [now in Haryana], India—died December 20, 2024, Gurugram, Haryana) was an Indian politician and government official who was a longtime president of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), a regional political party in Haryana state, northwest-central India. He was chief minister of Haryana five times, though he served a full term (five years) only once. His other stints in office were brief, including one lasting five days.

Early life and family

Chautala was born in a small village near the city of Sirsa, in what is now northwestern Haryana. His father, Devi Lal, was a towering figure in Haryana politics: he was instrumental in the establishment of the state (out of Punjab state) in 1966, later served as Haryana’s chief minister and as deputy prime minister of India, and was the leading force in establishing the INLD. Chautala dropped out of school and opted to make a career in politics, following in his father’s footsteps. In 1968, as a member of the Janata (People’s) Party, he stood for election from the Ellenabad constituency in Haryana but lost. He challenged the election in court and about a year later a by-election was held. Chautala won and was elected to the Haryana state legislative assembly for the first time.

Political career and controversies

Chautala’s early political career was marred by several controversies. Most notable was an incident in 1978 when he was detained at the Delhi airport while returning from overseas for bringing a large number of wristwatches into the country. He fell out of favor with his father, who publicly disowned him, but in subsequent years he undertook activities that allowed him to make amends. Of note, Chautala ran the Nyaya Yudh (“Battle for Justice”), a publicity campaign that mobilized political support for his father’s successful bid for a seat in the 1987 elections to the state assembly, and he put together a similar operation in the mid-1990s to improve the INLD’s image. Chautala was also responsible for organizing public meetings in different parts of Haryana to protest against lawlessness and corruption. Still, in 1990 there were allegations that he was involved in the killing of a political opponent, and he was forced out after a five-day term as chief minister of Haryana.

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Chautala was elected to the Rajya Sabha (upper chamber of the Indian parliament) in 1987 and served there until 1990. In December 1989 he was made chief minister of Haryana for the first time, replacing his father, who had been appointed the country’s deputy prime minister in the Janata Dal government headed by V.P. Singh as prime minister. Chautala was unable to gain a seat in the state legislative assembly within the required six months, however, and, as a result, he left office in May 1990. Shortly thereafter he did win a by-election to the assembly, and he served two more short tenures as chief minister in 1990–91, though each lasted only a matter of days.

Chief minister for 5 and 15 days

The first of these two brief tenures as chief minister lasted five days, July 12–17, 1990. Chautala ran in a by-election from Meham constituency, but the election commission ordered repolling after allegations of electoral fraud. His subsequent appointment to the chief minister’s post was complicated by the death of an independent candidate, Amir Singh, running against him. Some days before the repolling, Singh was killed, which triggered protests that became violent. Clashes between the police and protesters left 10 dead, and Chautala resigned as chief minister at the direction of V.P. Singh, who thought it best that he step down in light of the turmoil in Meham.

Singh’s central government fell in November 1990, and Chautala resumed the chief ministership of Haryana in March 1991. This time his tenure was 15 days. He was forced to resign after members of the state assembly defected and his government lost support. Direct rule was imposed in Haryana until fresh elections were held some months later. The Indian National Congress (Congress Party) won and formed the government. Chautala, who did not run for a seat at that time, entered the house through a by-election in 1993. However, he resigned in protest in 1995, claiming that the Congress Party government had jeopardized the state by agreeing to share the water of the Yamuna River, Haryana’s most important stream, with the neighboring states of Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh.

INLD president and full term as chief minister

Chautala won a seat in the 1996 Haryana assembly elections and became the opposition leader in the house after the Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) formed a government. The Haryana Lok Dal was officially established in 1996, and its name was changed to Indian National Lok Dal in 1998. The HVP government lost its majority in the state assembly in 1999, and Chautala, with support from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), successfully laid claim to the chief minister’s office. That same year he was also elected president of the INLD in Haryana. Chautala’s fourth tenure as head of government lasted until March 2000, when early elections to the state assembly were called.

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In the 2000 state elections, the INLD, allied with the BJP, secured 47 seats in the 90-member assembly, and the BJP added 6 more seats to the coalition. The INLD formed a government, and Chautala became chief minister for the fifth time. Although his tenure lasted the full five-year term, it was considered to have accomplished relatively little and to have failed to fulfill many of the pro-farmer promises that the party had made in its electoral campaign. The INLD, campaigning without the BJP, lost badly in the 2005 state assembly elections, and the Congress Party formed a new government. The INLD fared better in the 2009 state polls, but the Congress Party retained control of the government. Chautala maintained his seat in the assembly in both contests.

Jail term

Chautala’s political career ended in 2013. Two years earlier he, his son Ajay Singh Chautala (secretary-general of the INLD), and several dozen other officials had been indicted for allegedly promoting some 3,200 teacher candidates illegally during Chautala’s fourth term as chief minister. In January 2013 he, his son, and others were convicted of their crimes and sentenced to terms of up to 10 years in prison. They appealed, but their convictions and sentences were upheld by the country’s Supreme Court in 2015. Chautala was released from Delhi’s Tihar Jail in 2021 after serving his sentence.

In 2022 Chautala was sentenced to four years in prison after the Central Bureau of Investigation found him guilty of accumulating assets disproportionate to his income while he was chief minister. The prison term was suspended by the Delhi High Court subject to payment of a 5,000,000-rupee ($63,700) penalty.