NEW DELHI, Dec 20: The former Haryana Chief Minister and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supremo Om Prakash Chautala, 89, died at his Gurugram residence around noon on Friday.
“The Indian National Lok Dal president suffered a cardiac arrest at his Gurugram home and was immediately rushed to hospital but could not be saved. He breathed his last at around 12 noon in Medanta hospital,” a senior police officer said.
Mr Chautala, who came from a prominent political family in Haryana and was face of a prominent regional outfit, had been facing age-related health issues in the recent past.
Son of former Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal, Mr Chautala served as the Chief Minister of Haryana five times. He was first sworn in as the CM in December 1989, when he was a member of the Janata Dal. Between July 1990 and April 1991, Mr Chautala served two brief terms as the CM.
After he joined the INLD, Mr Chautala served as the Haryana CM for two consecutive terms from July 1999 to 2005. He is survived by his sons Abhay Singh Chautala and Ajay Singh Chautala and his grandson. Dushyant Chautala also served as Haryana’s Deputy Chief Minister.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini were among a host of leaders who condoled the demise of Mr Chautala. Expressing grief, PM Modi said on X, “He (Chautala) was active in the state politics for many years and strove constantly to advance the work of Devi Lal.”
Mr Saini said the demise of the INLD supremo is extremely sad. “My humble tribute to him. He served the state and society throughout his life. This is an irreparable loss for the politics of the country and Haryana state,” Mr Saini said on X.
Former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda recalled that when Mr Chautala was the Chief Minister, he was the Leader of Opposition in the Haryana Assembly. “Chautala served the people of the State. There are many good memories with him,” he said, adding that he was like his elder brother. Congress leader Randeep Singh Hooda and Kumari Selja also condoled the death of Mr Chautala.
Born on January 1, 1935, Om Prakash Chautala was the eldest of the five children of former Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal. Chautala left studies after primary education. In 2013, when Chautala was lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with the teacher recruitment scam, he passed the class 10 and then class 12 examination at the age of 82.
He was jailed in 2013 in connection with the teacher recruitment scam case and released in 2021. Chautala, his son Ajay Chautala, and 53 others, including IAS officer Sanjiv Kumar, were convicted and sentenced in the case of illegal recruitment of 3,206 junior basic teachers in 2000.
The former Haryana Chief Minister’s younger son Abhay Singh Chautala is a senior leader of the INLD while elder one Ajay Singh Chautala, a former MP, heads the Jannayak Janta Party, which was born after a vertical split in the party in December 2018 after a family feud. Chautala’s party INLD had also remained an ally of BJP in the past. The INDL has been out of power since 2005 in Haryana.
(Manas Dasgupta)