Bansi Lal Legha
Minister of Defenceof India
In office 21 December 1975 – 24 March 1977
Prime Minister	Indira Gandhi
Preceded by	Indira Gandhi
Succeeded by	Jagjivan Ram
Minister of Railwaysof India
In office 31 December 1984 – 4 June 1986
Prime Minister	Rajiv Gandhi
Preceded by	A. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury
Succeeded by	Mohsina Kidwai
3rd Chief Minister of Haryana
In office 22 May 1968 – 30 November 1975
Preceded by	President's rule
Succeeded by	Banarsi Das Gupta
In office 5 June 1986 – 19 June 1987
Preceded by	Bhajan Lal
Succeeded by	Chaudhary Devi Lal
In office 11 May 1996 – 23 July 1999
Preceded by	Bhajan Lal
Succeeded by	Om Prakash Chautala
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 1980–1987
Preceded by	Chandrawati
Succeeded by	Chaudhary Ram Narain Singh
Constituency	Bhiwani
In office 1989–1991
Preceded by	Chaudhary Ram Narain Singh
Succeeded by	Jangbir Singh
Constituency	Bhiwani
Personal details
Born	26 August 1927 Golagarh,Punjab,British India
Died	28 March 2006 (2006-03-29) (aged 78) New Delhi,India

Bansi Lal Legha (26 August 1927 – 28 March 2006), also known asChaudhary Bansi Lal, was an Indian politician andindependence activist, who served as theMinister of Defence of India and three-timeChief Minister of Haryana. He is also known as the 'architect of modern Haryana'.^[1]

Lal was part of the famous Lal trio ofHaryana, which also includedDevi Lal andBhajan Lal, that form the majorpolitical families of Haryana.^[2] Lal was elected as aMember of theHaryana Legislative Assembly seven times, the first time in 1967 fromTosham. He was considered a close confidant of the former Prime Minister of India,Indira Gandhi, and her son,Sanjay Gandhi, during theEmergency era of 1975-1977.^[2]

He set upHaryana Vikas Party after parting ways with theIndian National Congress in 1996. He returned to the Congress party in 2004, and helped the Congress to win the 2005 Assembly elections.^[2]

He was born on 26 August 1927 to Choudhary Mohar Singh and Shrimati Vidya Devi^[3] belonging toHinduJat community^[4]in the village of Golagarh inBhiwani district,British Punjab (nowHaryana). Following his marriage, Lal had two sons,Surender Singh, andRanbir Singh Mahendra.^[5]

The mother of Bansi Lal belongs to the VillageRudrol of Charkhi Dadri district of Haryana, India.

Bansi Lal did his BA in arts, followed by LLB (law degree), for which he studied at thePunjab University Law College,Jalandhar.^[3]

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Lal was elected to the Haryana State Assembly seven times, the first time in 1967 fromTosham. He served three separate terms as Chief Minister ofHaryana: 1968–75, 1986–87, and 1996–99.^[2] He served as thedefence minister of India from December 1975 to March 1977, and had a brief stint as a minister without portfolio in the Union government in 1975. He also held the Railways and Transport portfolios.

He set upHaryana Vikas Party after parting ways with theIndian National Congress in 1996. He returned to Congress in 2004, and helped the Congress to win the 2005 Assembly elections.^[2]

• Lal was secretary of Parja mandal in theLoharu State, from 1943 to 1944.
• Lal was president of the Bar Association, Bhiwani from 1957 to 1958. He was president of the District Congress Committee,Hisar, from 1959 to 1962 and later became a member of the Congress Working Committee and Congress Parliamentary Board.
• He was a member of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee between 1958 and 1962.
• He was Haryana'schief minister : from 1968 to 1975 (Congress), 1985 to 1987 (Congress), and 1996 to 1999 with Haryana Vikas Party.
• He was thedefence minister of India from December 1975 to March 1977.
• He was also the chairman of the Committee of Parliament and Committee on Public Undertakings, 1980–82, and the Committee on Estimates, 1982–84.
• He becameRailways minister of India on 31 December 1984 in Rajiv Gandhi's ministry and later minister for transport.
• He was elected to the Haryana State Assembly five times fromTosham (1967, 1972, 1986 bye-poll, 1991, 1996). He lost once fromTosham in 1987 Devi Lal wave, just a few months after winning the seat with more than 80,000 votes in 1986.^[6]
• He was aRajya Sabha member from 1960 to 1966 and 1976 to 1980. He was a Lok Sabha member fromBhiwani three times : 1980 to 1984, 1985 to 1986, and 1989 to 1991. He lost from Bhiwani in 1977 due to the Janata wave.
• After he parted company with Congress in 1996, Bansi Lal set up theHaryana Vikas Party and his campaign against prohibition propelled him to power in the assembly polls the same year.
• Chronologically : Rajya Sabha MP (1960-1966), Haryana MLA (1967-1975), Rajya Sabha (1976-1980 but lost Bhiwani Lok Sabha election in 1977), Lok Sabha MP from 1980 to 1984, 1984–1986, Haryana MLA 1986–1987, lost assembly election in 1987, became Lok Sabha MP 1989–1991, Haryana MLA 1991-1996 and 1996 to 2000.

2000 Haryana Legislative Assembly election: Bhiwani

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	HVP	Bansi Lal	33,199	46.39%	12.82
	INC	Vasudev Sharma	25,130	35.11%	8.94
	BSP	Anil Kumar	4,844	6.77%	New
	BJP	Rishi Ram	4,335	6.06%	New
	CPI(M)	Kulbhushan Arya	788	1.10%	New
	Independent	Sajjan Khangwal	641	0.90%	New
	SP	Ramesh Chander	546	0.76%	New
	JD(U)	Suresh Kumar	373	0.52%	New
	Independent	Jai Kumar	369	0.52%	New
Margin of victory			8,069	11.27%	21.75
Turnout			71,572	61.94%	1.97
Registered electors			1,15,785		1.94
	HVPhold		Swing	12.82

1996 Haryana Legislative Assembly election: Tosham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	HVP	Bansi Lal	47,274	53.60%	1.49
	INC	Dharambir	34,472	39.09%	2.37
	Samata Party	Joginder	2,685	3.04%	New
	JD	Ramesh	647	0.73%	New
	Independent	Amar Chand	507	0.57%	New
Margin of victory			12,802	14.52%	3.86
Turnout			88,194	74.29%	8.98
Registered electors			1,21,829		11.21
	HVPhold		Swing	1.49

1991 Haryana Legislative Assembly election: Tosham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	HVP	Bansi Lal	38,272	55.10%	New
	INC	Dharambir	25,507	36.72%	9.46
	JP	Om Parkash S/O Nanu Ram	1,735	2.50%	New
	BJP	Sukhpal Singh	1,513	2.18%	New
	BSP	Dharam Pal	552	0.79%	New
Margin of victory			12,765	18.38%	15.05
Turnout			69,463	65.03%	2.40
Registered electors			1,09,549		9.66
	HVPgain fromLKD		Swing	5.59

1972 Haryana Legislative Assembly election: Tosham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	INC	Bansi Lal	30,934	71.17%	41.23
	Independent	Devi Lal	10,440	24.02%	New
	Independent	Gigrai	1,391	3.20%	New
	Independent	Rattan Singh	697	1.60%	New
Margin of victory			20,494	47.15%	43.05
Turnout			43,462	75.09%	16.51
Registered electors			59,599		10.51
	INChold		Swing	41.23

1968 Haryana Legislative Assembly election: Tosham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	INC	Bansi Lal	9,109	29.94%	29.6
	SSP	Jangbir Singh	7,860	25.84%	25.65
	SWA	Deva Singh	6,090	20.02%	New
	Independent	Jagam Nath	4,326	14.22%	New
	Independent	Banwari Singh	2,790	9.17%	New
	Independent	Mehatab	144	0.47%	New
	Independent	Mohinder Singh	104	0.34%	New
Margin of victory			1,249	4.11%	11.74
Turnout			30,423	58.01%	8.39
Registered electors			53,932		3.16
	INChold		Swing	4.04

Bansi Lal became the chief minister of Haryana four times in 1968, 1972, 1986 and 1996. He was the third chief minister of Haryana afterBhagwat Dayal Sharma andRao Birender Singh. He became Haryana chief minister for the first time on 31 May 1968 at the age of 41, making him the youngest chief minister in the country at the time, and remained in office till 13 March 1972. On 14 March 1972, he occupied the top post in the state for the second time and was in office till 29 November 1975. The third and fourth times he was appointed chief minister was from 5 June 1986 to 19 June 1987 and 11 May 1996 to 23 July 1999.

Bansi Lal was elected to the state assembly seven times, the first time being in 1967. After Haryana was formed in 1966, much of the state's industrial and agricultural development, especially creation of infrastructure, took place due to Lal's initiatives. He was elected to the state assembly for seven times in 1967, 1968, 1972, 1986, 1991 and 2000.

He was responsible for electrifying all villages in Haryana during his tenure as chief minister in the late sixties and seventies. He was also the pioneer of highway tourism in the state – a model later adopted by a number of states. He is regarded by many as an "Iron man" who was always close to reality and took keen interest in the upliftment of the community. Lal became one of the first Chief Ministers to visitIsrael, when he led a delegation of agriculturalists andsarpanches to the country in 1971.

Even before the emergency he ruled the state of Haryana in an authoritarian fashion, within the first six and a half years of his rule as chief minister, the Haryana police took into custody more than 143,000 people, including many of his political opponents.^[7] He was known to dislike journalists and press especially those critical of him. Two months before the emergency he sent his goons with a senior municipal officer to demolish the offices ofChetna, a Bhiwani-based newspaper which was critical of him, and one day after the Emergency was declared arrested its editor Devabrata Vasisht along with his father.^[8] In other instances he tamed press critical of him like theTribune at Chandigarh, by denying it government advertisements and using the police to fine vehicles that carried the paper to Haryana.^[9]

In 1974, Bansi Lal's son, Surender Singh along with a police escort stormed into the house of Bhanwar Singh, a student union leader at Bhiwani college, in Rewasa. They dragged Bhanwar, his sister, and his grandmother, the two siblings were stripped naked and made to lie on the same cot, while Bhanwar's grandmother was kicked to death. The journalist Makhan Lal Kak who reported this story was locked up on the very first day of the emergency, while the deputy superintendent who took part in this was given a promotion.^[7]

Bansi Lal also brought the Maruti car project to Haryana, which was Sanjay Gandhi's pet project, he provided over 297.3 acres of land for Maruti factory in the district ofGurgaon, of which 157 acres belonged to the Ministry of Defense, and 140 acres were highly fertile and populated land that belonged to many farmers.^[10] He also provided Maruti a government loan to cover the costs of this purchase.^[9] To this end 15,000 farmers were evicted.^[11]

Bansi Lal did not contest the assembly elections in 2005 but his sonsSurender Singh andRanbir Singh Mahendra were elected to the state assembly. Surender Singh died in a helicopter crash nearSaharanpur in Uttar Pradesh on 31 March 2005.

Lal was in the limelight whenEmergency was imposed by the then Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi in 1975. He was a confidante of Indira Gandhi and her sonSanjay Gandhi during the controversial Emergency days in 1975. He was part of a cabal around Sanjay Gandhi, along with V C Shukla, Om Mehta, et al., which came to be known as 'the Emergency caucus'. This group, led by Sanjay Gandhi, was said to be responsible for various harsh steps during the Emergency.^[12]

He was thedefence minister from 21 December 1975 to 24 March 1977 and a minister without portfolio in the Union government from 1 December 1975 to 20 December 1975. The Shah Commission of Inquiry which was formed at end of the Emergency noted that Lal often misused his official position for personal reasons.^[13]

Lal died in New Delhi on 28 March 2006 at the age of 78. He had been unwell for quite some time.^[14]

• In 1972, theKurukshetra University and theHaryana Agricultural University awarded him honorary degrees ofDoctor of Law andDoctor of Science respectively.

• In 2008, the Jui canal was named the Bansi Lal Canal in his memory.^[15]
• In 2014,Chaudhary Bansi Lal University was created inBhiwani in his memory.

• Lal's elder son,Ranbir Singh Mahendra served asPresident of Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI).
• Lal's younger son's wife, Mrs.Kiran Choudhry, is a Member of the Legislative Assembly (2005,2009, 2014) fromTosham constituency. She was cabinet minister in Bhupinder Singh Hooda's government from 2009 to 2014.
• Lal's grand daughter, Mrs.Shruti Choudhry, was a Member of the Parliament (2009) fromBhiwani constituency. She lost the 2014 general elections from same constituency.

• Aaya Ram Gaya Ram
• Dynastic politics of Haryana

• Bansi Lal: Chief Minister of Haryana By S. R. Bakshi, Sita Ram Sharma 1998ISBN 9788170249856

• 1927 births
• 2006 deaths
• People from Bhiwani district
• People from Bhiwani
• Chief ministers of Haryana
• Railway ministers of India
• Ministers of defence of India
• Members of the Cabinet of India
• India MPs 1980–1984
• India MPs 1984–1989
• India MPs 1989–1991
• Rajya Sabha members from Punjab, India
• India MPs 1991–1996
• Lok Sabha members from Haryana
• Indian independence activists from Punjab Province (British India)
• Chief ministers from Indian National Congress
• People of the Emergency (India)
• Haryana Vikas Party politicians
• Haryana MLAs 2000–2005
• Haryana MLAs 1996–2000
• Haryana MLAs 1972–1977
• Haryana MLAs 1968–1972

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