Indian National Lok Dal

Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), regional political party of Haryana state, northwest-central India. The party’s focus has been principally in the state, and it has had only a limited presence on the national political scene in New Delhi. Its power base has been principally in the traditional Jat heartland in central and west-central Haryana.

In 1996 the Haryana-based politician Chaudhary Devi Lal established the Haryana Lok Dal party. Lal, himself a Jat, had served twice as chief minister (head of government) of the state (1977–79 and 1987–89) and two terms as deputy prime minister of India (1989–90 and 1990–91). The party was officially established under the name Haryana Lok Dal (Rashtriya)—or HLD(R)—but by 1998 it was known as the Indian National Lok Dal. The party has not professed any particular ideology, except for its stated promises to promote the causes of “farmers, labourers, rural and urban areas, and the downtrodden and exploited.” From its inception the INLD was run and controlled by Lal and his family, with the top leadership passing from him to Om Prakash Chautala, his son, in 1999.

After its formation the party was a part of a coalition headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that in 1999 became known as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The INLD won four seats in the 1998 elections to the Lok Sabha (lower chamber of the Indian parliament), and five seats in the 1999 polls. Also in 1999 Chautala, with the support of the BJP, became the chief minister of the state for the fourth time. He was in office little more than half a year before early elections to the state’s legislative assembly were announced.

The INLD contested the 2000 Haryana assembly elections in alliance with the BJP and won 47 seats in the 90-member chamber; the BJP added another six seats. Chautala was again named chief minister. The INLD government, however, was ineffectual, in spite of the token measures it initiated to improve the lot of the farmers, better utilize water resources for farming purposes, establish institutions of higher education (notably Chaudhary Devi Lal University; founded 2003), and develop infrastructure. The INLD severed its alliance with the BJP and the NDA in 2004.

In the 2005 state assembly elections, the party suffered a humiliating defeat, winning only nine seats. Poor governance during its previous tenure, the party’s split with the BJP, defections within the party itself, and the rise of caste-based parties (such as the Bahujan Samaj Party) were among the reasons given for the INLD’s electoral performance. The death of Chaudhary Devi Lal in 2001 had also reduced the party’s popular appeal among the Jats, who had highly respected the senior leader. The Indian National Congress (Congress Party) won 67 seats and formed the government. Following the elections the BJP and the INLD reestablished their alliance.

The INLD fared even worse in elections to the Lok Sabha, failing to win a single seat in the chamber in the 2004 and 2009 contests. That led the BJP to split with the INLD, which occurred shortly before the 2009 state legislative assembly elections. In the Haryana polls, the INLD rebounded to win 31 seats, but shortly before the election some key party members deserted the INLD and joined the Congress Party. Congress, which won 40 seats, was able to form a coalition government. The INLD, as the opposition in the assembly, kept pressure on the government by attempting to highlight cases of poor governance and by bringing allegations of corruption. The party contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections on its own and garnered two seats in the chamber.

It was the INLD, however, that became the subject of a major corruption case. In January 2013 party president Chautala, his son Ajay Singh Chautala (the party’s secretary-general), and other leaders were convicted in a case involving the illegal recruitment of teachers in the state. The defendants received prison terms of up to 10 years. Om Prakash Chautala and Ajay Singh Chautala were released from jail in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

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The INLD was led by Om Prakash Chautala’s younger son Abhay Singh Chautala during the elder Chautalas’ incarceration. In 2018 the party was split by a feud in the family. Ajay Singh Chautala’s son Dushyant Chautala emerged as the popular choice for the party’s chief ministerial candidate in the 2019 Haryana election, while Om Prakash Chautala favored Abhay Singh Chautala. Dushyant Chautala and his brother Digvijay Chautala were expelled from the INLD, leading to the formation of the breakaway Jannayak Janta Party, which their parents, Ajay Singh Chautala and Naina Singh Chautala, also joined.

The INLD’s electoral performance since the split has been dismal. The party won a single seat in the 2019 Haryana assembly elections and two seats in the 2024 assembly polls. It won no seats in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019 and 2024.