CHANDIGARH, Dec 20:
Five-time Haryana Chief Minister and the man who passed his Class 12 exams from Tihar Jail when he was 82, Om Prakash Chautala was a politician with a chequered career and life marked by some highs and many lows.
The Indian National Lok Dal president and prominent Jat leader, who was sentenced to prison in connection with a teacher recruitment scam and a disproportionate assets case, died in Gurugram on Friday, days before his 90th birthday on January 1.
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Born into an influential political family, Chautala was the eldest son of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal and took on the mantle of heading the party his father founded.
The father was considered a messiah of farmers and the son could never reach those heights but was known for his sharp political acumen and wit despite not being well-educated.
Though he was sworn in as Haryana Chief Minister five times, he enjoyed only one full term in office — between 1999 and 2005. In between, right from 1989 to July 1999, he served only intermittent terms in office.
The seven-time MLA became Chief minister for the first time when Devi Lal became Deputy Prime Minister in the Janata Dal Government in 1989.
He had his fair share of controversies in between.
In 1990, Haryana’s Meham Assembly seat hit the national headlines after large-scale violence. A rebel Lok Dal leader and seven others were killed in what became infamous as the “Meham Kand”. The opposition had then accused Chautala of trying to force his victory in constituency. Later, the polls on the seat had to be postponed thrice.
The INLD remained a steadfast ally of the NDA at the Centre for many years but ties broke before the 2005 Haryana Assembly polls. After that, the INLD never came to power in Haryana and its graph over the years continued to slide following electoral reverses.
Though he spent several years in jail and virtually retired in from active politics towards the end, Chautala remained the patriarch of the family that plays a prominent role in Haryana politics. While his younger brothers Pratap and Ranjit Chautala followed him into politics, one nephew is a sitting INLD MLA.
Chautala’s two sons Abhay and Ajay and their sons are also in politics. While the younger Abhay Chautala is a senior leader of the INLD, the elder, Ajay Chautala, heads the JJP, party he founded in 2018 after a split in the family.
Abhay Chautala’s son Arjun is a Haryana MLA while Ajay Chautala’s sons Dushyant and Digvijay are JJP leaders. Dushyant Chautala was Haryana deputy chief minister when ML Khattar was chief minister.
Chautala’s daughter-in-law and Ajay’s wife Naina Chautala was also an MLA from the JJP.
As the family’s political fortunes fluctuated through the years, so did Chautala’s.
His major setback came in 2013 when he was jailed in connection with the teacher recruitment scam. Son Ajay and 53 others, including an IAS officer, were convicted and sentenced in the case of illegal recruitment of 3,206 junior basic teachers in 2000 when the INLD was in power. (PTI)
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