• Om Prakash Chautala, a prominent Jat leader and former Haryana Chief Minister died on December 20. He was 89.

• The eldest son of former deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, the five-time CM headed the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), founded by his father.

• The Haryana government declared a three-day state mourning from December 20. 

A politician with a chequered career 

• Om Prakash Chautala was a politician with a chequered career and life marked by some highs and many lows.

• Chautala was born into an influential political family on January 1, 1935, in Chautala village.

• He served as Haryana Chief Minister five times, but it was only between 1999 and 2005 that he enjoyed a full term. 

• From 1989 to July 1999, he served only intermittent terms in office

• The seven-time MLA became CM for the first time when Devi Lal became deputy Prime Minister in the Janata Dal government in 1989.

• He was first elected to the Assembly in 1970.

• Chautala also had his fair share of controversies. In 1990, as widespread violence spread in the Meham Assembly seat, the opposition accused Chautala of trying to force his victory there. The episode became infamous in Haryana’s politics as ‘Meham Kand’. 

• His INLD government also came under criticism in 2002 when nine farmers died in police firing.

• 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

• He was sent to jail in 2013 in connection with a teacher recruitment scam. Chautala and his son Ajay Singh Chautala were among those convicted and sentenced in connection with the illegal recruitment of 3,206 junior basic teachers in 2000, when the INLD was in power.

• Serving his 10-year prison term, Chautala was released from Delhi’s Tihar jail in July 2021. He was already out on parole at the time.

• Chautala passed his Class 10 and Class 12 exams while in jail. He was 82 when he scored first division marks in his Class 12 exam. His clearing of the Class 10 exam was an inspiration for the Bollywood film ‘Dasvi’.

• He was sent to Tihar jail again in May 2022 after being awarded a four-year sentence in a disproportionate assets case. At 87, he became its oldest inmate.

• In August 2022, Delhi High Court suspended the sentence.

• In December 2018, his elder son Ajay Singh Chautala floated the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) after a vertical split in the INLD. The JJP extended support to the BJP in 2019 when the saffron outfit fell short of a majority in the Assembly polls. Ajay Singh Chautala’s wife Naina SIngh Chautala had a term as a JJP MLA. 

• Chautala’s younger son Abhay Singh Chautala is a senior INLD leader. Abhay Singh Chautala’s son Arjun Chautala is a Haryana MLA, while Ajay Singh Chautala’s sons Dushyant and Digvijay are JJP leaders. Dushyant Chautala also served as deputy Chief Minister in the Manohar Lal Khattar government.

• In the past few years, Chautala made efforts to form a third front, meeting his old associates Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and former PM H.D. Deve Gowda. The efforts, however, did not yield a result.

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