Although Bhajan Lal first stood in a general election in 1989, there was a gap before he and his family started their streak of participating in all parliamentary polls from 1998 onwards. Similarly, though Bansi Lal fought the LS polls in 1977, 1984 and 1989, there was a gap before his family’s unbroken run of contesting all LS polls began in 1996.
But this time, despite the claims of Bhajan Lal’s younger son, Kuldeep Bishnoi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) named Ranjit Singh Chautala — Devi Lal’s third son — as its candidate from Hisar last month. Meanwhile, the Congress preferred three-time MP Jai Prakash in Hisar over Bishnoi’s elder brother, Chander Mohan.
The Congress, in its list of candidates announced Thursday, similarly announced Rao Dan Singh as its Bhiwani-Mahendergarh candidate rather than Shruti Choudhry, granddaughter of Bansi Lal.
In contrast, in addition to Ranjit Singh, two other members of Devi Lal’s family are contesting the Hisar seat. Om Prakash Chautala, Partap Singh, and Jagdish Singh are the former deputy PM’s other sons. In Hisar, Om Prakash Chautala’s daughter-in-law, Naina Chautala (Ajay Chautala’s wife) is the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) candidate. Partap Singh’s daughter-in-law, Sunaina Chautala (Ravi Chautala’s wife), is the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate.
Another member of Devi Lal’s family, Om Prakash Chautala’s younger son, Abhay Chautala, is contesting as an INLD candidate in Kurukshetra against Naveen Jindal of the BJP and Sushil Gupta of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Speaking to ThePrint about the Lals missing from this election, Pawan Kumar Bansal, the author of Haryana Ke Lalon Ke Sabrange Kisse (1998), a collection of anecdotes about the three Lals and their ‘lals (progeny)’, said that all the Lal dynasties have such a firm grip over Haryana politics that their end can’t be expected so soon.
“Wait for six months, and you will find several members of the families of the three Lals contesting the assembly polls. Even in the Lok Sabha polls, members of families of Bansi Lal and Bhajan Lal might be seen contesting again, maybe in the next one,” said Bansal.
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Bhajan Lal’s family
Bhajan Lal, who started his career in electoral politics in 1968 by contesting the Vidhan Sabha elections from Adampur — a seat his family has not lost since then — fought his first parliamentary election from Faridabad in 1989 as a Congress candidate and defeated Khursheed Ahmad of the Janata Dal by over 1.31 lakh votes.
He didn’t contest in the 1991 and 1996 Lok Sabha elections but successfully fought from the Karnal Lok Sabha seat in 1998 and defeated I.D. Swami of the BJP by a margin of 52,000 votes.
However, he lost the next election from Karnal in 1999 to I.D. Swami by 1.48 lakh votes.
In the 2004 LS polls, Bhajan Lal’s son Kuldeep Bishnoi, as a Congress candidate, defeated Bansi Lal’s son Surender Singh of the Haryana Vikas Party in Bhiwani by a margin of over 24,000 votes. Devi Lal’s grandson Ajay Chautala came third.
In 2007, Bhajan Lal founded the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) and won the Hisar seat as his party’s candidate in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls by defeating Sampat Singh of the INLD by nearly 7,000 votes.
Bhajan Lal died in 2011. The 2014 Lok Sabha election saw his son Kuldeep Bishnoi, as the HJC candidate, losing to Dushyant Chautala of the INLD in Hisar by a margin of nearly 32,000 votes.
Then, in 2019, Bhavya Bishnoi, Kuldeep’s son, secured the third position in the Hisar contest. It was the BJP’s Brijendra Singh who won the seat, defeating Chautala — now a JJP candidate — by a margin of over three lakh votes.
The family now aligns with the BJP.
Reign of Bansi Lal’s family in LS polls ended with Modi wave
Bansi Lal contested his first election on a Congress ticket from Bhiwani in 1977 after the Emergency but lost to Chandrawati of the Bharatiya Lok Dal by a margin of 1.62 lakh votes.
From the same seat, Bansi Lal, as Congress candidate, defeated Balwant Rai Tayal of the Janata Party in the 1980 elections by a margin of 50,000 votes. In 1984, Bansi Lal defeated Jai Narain of the Indian National Congress (Jagjivan) in Bhiwani by a margin of 1.87 lakh votes. In 1989, he defeated Dharambir Singh of the Janata Dal in Bhiwani by over 1.57 lakh votes.
In 1991, no member of Bansi Lal’s family contested the parliamentary polls. Bansi Lal had set up his Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) by then and contested the assembly polls in his quest to come to power while his son Surender Singh was already a Rajya Sabha member (1986-1992).
Jangbir Singh, who contested from Bhiwani on an HVP ticket, defeated Jai Narain, now a Congress candidate, by over 30,000 votes. Then in 1996, Bansi Lal’s son Surender Singh (HVP) defeated Jangbir Singh, this time a Congress candidate, in Bhiwani by a margin of 2.25 lakh votes.
In 1998 again, Surender Singh (HVP) defeated Ajay Singh Chautala of the Haryana Lok Dal (Rashtriya) in Bhiwani by nearly 10,000 votes. Bansi Lal’s elder son, Ranbir Singh Mahender, contested this election on the Congress ticket and finished third.
In 1999, Surender Singh (HVP) lost the Bhiwani seat to Ajay Chautala of the INLD with Dharambir Singh (Congress) coming in the second spot.
Then in 2004, Surender Singh (HVP) came second to Kuldeep Bishnoi from the Bhiwani Lok Sabha seat.
Surender Singh died in a chopper crash in 2005 and his daughter Shruti Choudhry was handed over the baton to contest the Lok Sabha polls in future, with her grandfather Bansi Lal tying a turban on her head.
Bansi Lal died in 2006. In the 2009 general election, Shruti Choudhry, as Congress candidate, won the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat, which before the delimitation exercise of 2007-08 was the Bhiwani seat, by defeating Ajay Chautala of the INLD by a margin of over 55,000 votes.
She, however, lost the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary polls to Dharambir Singh of the BJP by margins of 1.29 lakh and 4.44 lakh votes, respectively.
The Congress has dropped her this time.
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Devi Lal family—Different flags but still fighting LS polls
Devi Lal contested his first parliamentary election from the Sonepat seat in 1980 when as a Janata Party (Secular) candidate he defeated Randhir Singh of the Congress by over 1.5 lakh votes. However, he lost this seat to Dharam Pal Singh of the Congress in 1984 by less than 4,000 votes. Meanwhile, his son, Om Prakash Chautala, lost the 1984 Lok Sabha elections from Hisar.
Devi Lal (Janata Dal) contested his next election successfully from Rohtak, defeating Hardwari Lal of the Congress in 1989 by 1.9 lakh votes. In 1989, Devi Lal contested from three seats — Rohtak, Sikar (Rajasthan), and Ferozepur (Punjab) and won the first two. He eventually retained Sikar.
In 1991, 1996 and 1998, Devi Lal was defeated from Rohtak by Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress. His grandson, Ajay Singh Chautala, contested from Bhiwani in 1998, but he too lost.
Ajay Chautala won the Bhiwani seat in 1999 but lost the seat to Kuldeep Bishnoi in 2004. In 2009, Ajay Chautala lost again, this time to Shruti Choudhry of the Congress.
Ajay Chautala’s son, Dushyant Chautala, won the Hisar Lok Sabha seat in 2014 by defeating Kuldeep Bishnoi, then an HJC candidate, but then lost this seat to Brijendra Singh in 2019.
This election, Dushyant’s mother, along with two other members of the Devi Lal family, is in the field from Hisar while her brother-in-law Abhay Singh Chautala is contesting from Kurukshetra.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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