Om Prakash Chautala

Om Prakash Chautala Biography

Om Prakash Chautala is a very prominent politician from Haryana who is a former chief minister too. He is the leader of the Indian National Lok Dal political party and currently serves as the opposition leader of Haryana Vidhan Sabha. He is the son of prominent leader and former Chief Minister of Haryana, Chaudhari Devi Lal. Now his sons and grandchildren too are active in state politics. He has sworn in as the Chief Minister of Haryana many times, though he completed the term of 5 years only once – 1999 to 2005. He has sworn in and left the Chief Minister position of the state 3 times, in between 1989 and 1991. All those terms have been short-lived. Yet he holds the record of 5 terms.

For the Teachers’ Recruitment scam that occurred during 1999-2000, in January 2013 New Delhi court had sentenced him and his elder son Ajay Singh Chautala for ten years imprisonment. His ailment plea was also rejected by Supreme Court the same year and he surrendered before Tihar jail. He has been associated with many controversies throughout his political career.  He was publicly disowned by his father years back for smuggling gold watches worth Rs 100,000.

He was born in 1935 as the son of Chaudhari Devi Lal, freedom fighter and a former Chief Minister of Haryana and Deputy Prime Minister of India. Though he belonged to an agricultural family, destiny chose him to join state political affairs. As a chief minister of Haryana, he is known for raising the living standards of common man. However in 2005 Haryana state assembly elections, INLD lost its majority and he had to resign. Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda sworn in as next chief minister.

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Updated: July 25, 2014