Bhajan Lal | |
|---|---|
| 6thChief Minister of Haryana | |
| In office 23 June 1991 – 11 May 1996 | |
| Preceded by | President's rule |
| Succeeded by | Bansi Lal |
| In office 29 June 1979 – 5 July 1986 | |
| Preceded by | Chaudhary Devi Lal |
| Succeeded by | Bansi Lal |
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha | |
| In office 1986–1992 | |
| Constituency | Haryana |
| Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha | |
| In office 16 May 2009 – 3 June 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Jai Parkash |
| Succeeded by | Kuldeep Bishnoi |
| Constituency | Hisar |
| In office 10 March 1998 – 26 April 1999 | |
| Preceded by | Ishwar Dayal Swami |
| Succeeded by | Ishwar Dayal Swami |
| Constituency | Karnal |
| In office 2 December 1989 – 13 March 1991 | |
| Preceded by | Khurshid Ahmed |
| Succeeded by | Avtar Singh Bhadana |
| Constituency | Faridabad |
| Member of theHaryana Legislative Assembly | |
| In office 1968-1998 and 2000-2009 | |
| Preceded by | H. Singh |
| Succeeded by | Kuldeep Bishnoi |
| Constituency | Adampur |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1930-10-06)6 October 1930 Kotwali,Bahawalpur State,British India (now inPunjab,Pakistan) |
| Died | 3 June 2011(2011-06-03) (aged 80) Hisar, Haryana,India |
| Political party | Indian National Congress (1968-77 & 1979–96) Janata Party (1977–79) Haryana Janhit Congress |
| Spouse | Jasmadevi Bishnoi |
| Children | Chander Mohan Bishnoi Kuldeep Bishnoi Roshni Bishnoi |
Bhajan Lal (6 October 1930 – 3 June 2011) was a politician and three-timechief minister of theIndian state ofHaryana. He became the Chief Minister for the first time in 1979, was re-elected in 1982, and became the chief minister for the third time by winning theelections in 1991. He also served as theMinister of Agriculture and theMinister of Environment and Forests in theRajiv Gandhi government.
Bhajan Lal was born in aBishnoi family[1] on 6 October 1930 in the Koranwali village ofBritish India'sBahawalpur princely state, which is now inPakistan.He received his formal education inBahawalnagar. Lal lived under difficult circumstances and had to sell his wares on a cycle to make a living.[2][3] He married Jasma Devi, with whom he had two sons -Chander Mohan Bishnoi andKuldip Bishnoi and a daughter, Roshni.
Bhajan Lal moved toAdampur afterthe Partition. At the age of 17 he began buying and selling goods at his village market, he soon started a shop in partnership with Pokhar Mal who was a local trader. Both of them worked as commission agents (intermediaries between the fanner and the wholesaler), this work got him into trouble with the local police. He initially joined politics to protect himself from the police. The police had 12 criminal cases and charges against him, all of which were dropped once he became a MLA.[4]
Lal started his political career by becoming a villagesarpanch and later the chairman of thepanchayat samiti of Hisar. He joined theCongress Party, and became the president of the Congress Mandal in the region. He was elected to theHaryana Assembly for the first time in 1968 after winning the mid-term polls inAdampur. He retained this seat for the remainder of his political career except in 1987 when his wife won the seat.[2]
In 1977 elections he contested under aJanata Party ticket and won the elections. Under the new Janata Party government ofDevi Lal, Bhajan Lal was given a number of ministries including the ministry of dairy development and animal husbandry, the ministry of labour and employment, and the forests ministry. However in 1979 he defected to the Congress along with a group ofMLAs thereby toppling the Janata Party government.[5]
Following his defection to the Congress he became theChief Minister of Haryana with a razor thin majority. In 1980 following the victory ofIndira Gandhi led Congress (I) inthe general elections, many Janata Party leaders began to defect, by then he was able to get as many as 40 Janata Party MLAs into the Congress and secured a strong majority of 50 MLAs in an assembly of 90 MLAs. He had achieved this despite his rival Devi Lal resorting to guarding his 42Janata Party MLAs in a farmhouse with guards armed with submachine guns. He offered the defecting MLAs land, money, positions in state corporations and boards, and cabinet positions to this end he had expanded the number of cabinet ministries to 26 which made every second congress MLA a minister. He also held control over the state'sCriminal Investigation Department, which he used to his advantage by filing cases against he rivals to pressure them into withdrawing or joining him.[4] This horse trading during his first term had led to theHindustan Times calling him the "master of horse-trading".[6]
Bhajan Lal's record on governance and the economy however was seen as poor at the time with state corporations and boards seeing sharp declines in their surpluses and no addition of new electricity generation capacity in the state during his initial years of rule between 1979-1982.[4] He wasre-elected on 23 May 1982 and served until July 1986.[citation needed]
Although he did not lead the party into the1987 elections, the electoral rout of the Congress in that elections resulted in him being slowly sidelined in the party in favour of newer leaders likeBhupinder Hooda.[7]
In 1986 following the end of his tenure as Chief Minister, he was made aRajya SabhaMP, and was appointed as theUnion Minister of Environment and Forests under theRajiv Gandhi government. In 1988 he was made theUnion Minister of Agriculture. In 1989 he was elected to theLok Sabha after winning in the constituency ofFaridabad by defeatingKhurshid Ahmed from theJanata Party.[5][8]
He resigned from the Lok Sabha and contested theHaryana Assembly elections held in 1991 from Adampur, Congress won the elections and he was made the chief minister for the third time. However, in the1996 elections the Congress suffered a major defeat, and Bhajan Lal never became a chief minister following that.[5]
The victory of theIndian National Congress in Haryana's 2005 elections caused a major rift in its state unit, as it opted to makeBhupinder Hooda, a Jat, the Chief Minister instead of Lal.[9] In 2007, Lal officially announced he would form a new party, called theHaryana Janhit Congress. The key event that brought this about was the suspension of his sonKuldeep Bishnoi from the Indian National Congress, for criticizing the party's central leaders.[10]
He fought the 2009 Lok Sabha election despite being 79 years old at the time, stating that he was still "young enough to win elections".[11] He fought fromHissar and defeatedSampat Singh,INLD leader by 6983 votes,Jai parkash of Congress came at third position in a high-profile battle.[12]
Bhajan Lal died on 3 June 2011 inHisar following aheart attack.[13][14]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Chief Minister of Haryana 1979–1985 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chief Minister of Haryana 1991–1996 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
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