Om Prakash Chautala

Om Prakash Chautala (born January 1, 1935, near Sirsa, India) is 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. Between 1989 and 1991 he also served three brief terms as chief minister (head of government) of the state before occupying that office for a sustained period in 1999–2005.

Chautala was born in a small village near the city of Sirsa, in what is now northwestern Haryana. His father, Chaudhary Devi Lal, 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 1970, as a member of the Janata Dal (People’s Party), he was elected to the Haryana state legislative assembly for the first time.

Chautala’s early political career was marred, however, 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 favour with his father, but in subsequent years he undertook activities that allowed him to make amends. Of note, Chautala ran the Nyaya Yudh, or Nyaya Yuddh (“Battle for Justice”), 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.

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, replacing his father, who had been appointed the country’s deputy prime minister. Chautala was unable to gain a seat in the state legislative assembly within the required six months, however, and 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 one lasted only a matter of days.

The Indian National Congress (Congress Party) formed the government after winning the 1991 Haryana assembly elections. Chautala, who did not run for a seat at that time, entered the house through a by-election in 1993. He resigned in protest in 1995, however, claiming that the government had jeopardized the state by agreeing to share the water of the Yamuna River, Haryana’s most-important stream, with neighbouring states.

Chautala won a seat in the 1996 state assembly elections and became the opposition leader in the house after the Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) formed a government. The party that soon would be called the Indian National Lok Dal was officially established 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.

In the 2000 state elections, the INLD, allied with the BJP, secured 47 seats in the 90-member assembly, with the BJP adding 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 Congress retained control of the government. Chautala maintained his seat in the assembly in both contests.

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Chautala’s political career appeared to be at an end 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 illegally promoting some 3,200 teacher candidates 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.